I recently had a conversation with an Engineer "“ not a software engineer, but a manufacturing engineer, who couldn't understand the value of social media for businesses. He has heard of Twitter, but never used it, and uses Facebook on rare occasions to connect with old college and high school buddies, and keeps LinkedIn as an online resume.

How can a business, particularly a Business to Business (B2B) company not related to the Internet at all, use these popular social media platforms for sales? 

Here are a few actual examples:

I worked with an outside Sales Consultant for a company that provides energy saving solutions to forging companies. He was looking up directory listings for forging companies in his region to contact.  I suggested, rather than cold calling, that he use LinkedIn. 

Using the search on LinkedIn, we looked for anyone that had a job title related to forging.  We narrowed the list down to people in his sales region. Then, we looked through the list and discovered several key decision makes at forging companies that were connected to several of his connections. He got a recommendation and introduction from his connections, and suddenly these decision makers are potential sales.

 

But LinkedIn is easy, right? What about Twitter? Is that platform good for anything besides updates on the latest celebrity break ups and maybe some special offers from large retailers? 

We use Twitter for our company, and we have several accounts for each of our core products. I told my Engineer friend that Twitter is first about building and managing a reputation. It is very easy to see what is being said about your company, either positive or negative, and responding to that feedback.  You are also creating a searchable name for yourself, in search engines and on the social networks.  But how can you see measurable results? Often, that is difficult to do. 

We have had the best results from our PostalParrot Mass Email System account.  I and other team members Tweet useful tips related to each product. For PostalParrot, we often include facts, stats, and tips for good email marketing campaigns. These Tweets have allowed people searching for an affordable and simple-to-use email solution find us, and sign up for the Postal Parrot service. The useful information is also retweeted or shared by our followers, expanding our audience even further.

Ah, Facebook.  Facebook has obvious value for large companies that want to ad serve through the platform.  But what about small businesses, or B2B companies?

The important thing to remember on Facebook is that businesses ARE individuals. CEOs, small business owners, marketers "“ they are all individuals, many of which have a personal Facebook page. 

Let's say you are a small web service provider. You sell websites. You have over 700 fans that like your page on Facebook. So you share things with these fans, like information, tips, examples of your work, and so on. One of your fans sees a sample of your work that you posted, and shares it on their wall.  That fan happens to have a friend who owns a small business, and is looking for a website.  He sees that post, asks his friend about the company that posted it. His friend puts him in touch with the company, and this web provider now has a potential sale. Because of using Facebook.

I gave these three examples to my engineering friend, and he was convinced. Are you? As much as we may get tired of "social media marketing" and "how to use social media for your business", social media does have value for businesses of all types and sizes. And it is here to stay.  What else is there to do but learn to coexist, and just maybe, benefit?