Why B2B Marketing Is Not Social: An Unexpected Insight from SiriusDecisions

The most important thing I learned at this week’s SiriusDecisions Roundtable in Portland was not something Jonathon Block or Jay Gaines shared, and it wasn’t from a conversation with another attendee. It was the silence of Twitter

Mind you, this was an event about social media and website optimization. Half of the content was focused on how to use social media throughout the sales cycle and the increase in demand this drives. And in a room full of marketers, Carmen Hill (a content and social strategist and my colleague at Babcock & Jenkins) and myself were the only ones using Twitter.

Many of the people in these B2B marketing positions are not using social media. As Jay Baer said in Portland only the night before: “If you don’t love social media, you suck at social media.” These marketers are not loving social media. They are not making significant use of it in their professional lives. No wonder they are not embracing it as marketers.

Without an understanding of social media, these marketers will not develop effective social media strategies. They will not implement effective programs. They will not sell the value of social media in the organization and get the budget and resources necessary to be successful. Instead, they will blast press releases. They will not listen. They will not engage. They won’t understand the social side of social media, and it will clearly show.

B2B marketing thought leaders champion social media. Maybe its time to champion personal involvement in social media first.

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