Posted by: Gloria Dutton, Marketing Coordinator
On my recent post about social media, someone asked a great question about how a traditional B2B company might venture into the social media space, so I thought I’d dig in a little deeper.
The difference between how B2C companies and B2B companies engage in social media comes down to target audiences and the online avenues they’re likely to explore. It’s important to understand, however, that social media is just as valuable a resource for B2B companies as B2C… if not more.
One of the great misconceptions about social media relates to what’s actually out there. When you first hear “social media,” you might think of trendy social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Since Facebook was originally designed for a college audience, it might not be the best match for your business goals right now. (That’s not to say that you should write it off entirely. With some knowledge growth and increases in use, it might just evolve into a worthwhile outlet for you.) read more »
Posted by: Meg Archer, Marketing Coordinator
To help you wrap your head around all the social media talk these days, I thought I’d throw out an example of a company successfully leveraging the trend.
Consider Electronic Arts (EA), a leading video game development shop. They partnered with Context to create a Facebook application. It’s based on EA’s trivia game for the Nintendo Wii called Smarty Pants. EA repurposes the same questions from the Wii game for the Facebook application. In the application, the goal is to earn the most points by answering questions correctly. The faster you answer a question, the more points you get. Users challenge friends to beat each other’s score, and there’s also a leader board, displaying the smartest smarty pants. As you get more points, you grow into different pairs of pants like pajamas, safari pants and clown pants – virtual status symbols. read more »
Posted by: Gloria Dutton, Marketing Coordinator
Customers are now able to research, shop and communicate online, and because more and more people are taking advantage of these opportunities, they’re able to share their experiences with a wider, Web-based network than ever before. They give opinions and browse others’ reviews in a variety of venues – blogs, social networking sites like MySpace, and within ecommerce sites that allow users to post feedback. And because consumers are basing purchase decisions on the information they find in these social media avenues, companies are making it their business to actively participate.
Social media includes an endless list of online communication outlets including blogs, RSS feeds, forums, message boards, podcasts and social networking sites. In a recent survey by Inc. Magazine, 121 companies varying in size and industry were questioned about their familiarity with and use of social media outlets. The survey found that companies are “very familiar” with social networking (42%), message boards (38%), and blogging (36%). read more »