Business to Business (B2B) Marketers Need to Actively Participate in Online Communities

Recently we have been discussing the importance of social marketing/networking and social media marketing.  We described the various communities that make up the components of social marketing and defined online communities as an environment consisting of a group of people with a common interest where the users can share their knowledge and experience in a manner that will benefit the community as a whole. 

It is these online communities that B2B marketers need to participate in as part of their total online marketing solution.  Participation in these communities can help create top of mind awareness and tap into potential leads who may have not of been aware of your solutions or services.  Online communities offer businesses the opportunity to build a deeper relationship with their customers and prospects by facilitating interaction and feedback.  As Ryan mentioned in his recent post, "the key to effective social marketing is to actively participate in communities that are relevant to your product or service. B2B marketers should engage the vertical social networks, forums and blogs that surround their industries."  In the past particpation in online communities was taylored for individuals and B2C organizations.  But now companies are beginning to ask what community means for the B2B market and particularly, “how do we get there?”  So how do B2B marketers get there? 

 How Can B2B Marketers Actively Participate in Online Communities?

Well the first thing is to you need to do is discover all of the online communities that are relevant for your industry and for your business.  Of course there are some communities whereby having a physical presence in, you may be able to obtain leads from.  Here are a couple of examples of online community resources that B2B marketers should be aware of:

5 Online Community Resources for B2B Marketers

1. I Belong Networks – Develop your own large-scale web-based communities.
2. Com Find – directory Consisting of targeted business categories.  Being that it is a directory, there is not as much interaction as an actual online community.
3. LinkedIn - LinkedIn is by far the most popular social networking site targeted to business users with more than 9 million registered users in more than 130 industries.  Of those registered members nearly half a million are C-suite level executives.
4. Vox – Online community where you can share information about your products, solutions and services through blog posts, audio, video and more.  For more on Vox, visit http://www.sixapart.com/about/news/.
5. We Are Smarter.org – See real world applications of the power of community and social networking.

If you are going to create your own community remember that communities are created from within and should be built upon and complement your corporate strategy. You need to encourage interaction both between and directly with your our customers and prospects.  When creating your own online community you should consider the following: 

• Create an online content environment that drives customers and prospects to your site for product and service information early in the buying process
• Keep the the community relevant to users and their needs
• Ensure that there’s a reason for repeat visits
• Interaction is key. Make it easy for community members to find people who they can relate with and are “like themselves”.  This can be done via profiles and forums and mini communities.  MyBlogLog does a great job of this.
• Always respond to community feedback – if you have set up a community to attract prospects and leads, make sure you listen to what they are saying.

It is important to keep in mind that marketing as we have known it is undergoing a metamorphosis.  Push strategies are not as effective as they once were.  With the power shift to the consumer, B2B marketers need to create pull strategies that engage the customer.  There’s no doubt that this will cause marketing professionals and indeed all company executives to really step out of the status quo and understand and participate in the new age of marketing.  The question will not be "What have you done for me lately?" it will become "What can I do for you now and in the future?"