15 Content Marketing and Social Media Takeaways from the 2011 B2B Marketing Summit

This blog post is part of short series of posts meant to highlight and recap information learned from the B2B Marketing Summit in Boston this year.

The B2B Marketing Summit hosted a three part series on B2B Social Media presented by @jaybaer, author of The Now Revolution, @LMcCadney with CDW and Todd Williams @socialb2p with SAP .

Here are 15 content marketing and social media takeaways from the series:

Stats

1. 86% of business technology buyers engage in some form of social activity for work purposes.
2. Consumers exposed to brands on social media are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand in Google
3. Statistics show that buyers will read an average of 10 pieces of content before making purchases.
• Consumers want to be educated and will gather at least 60% of information needed to make a purchase before speaking with a sales person.
4. 84% of people who like a branded Facebook page are current customers.
• Think about customer retention and loyalty in social media.
5. 79% of B2B Marketers are using social media; only 19% have a strategy.
• 51% of that 79% are using social media without blogging.
• Blogging gives you content to share on social media.
• Avoid a strategy that consists of sharing tiny press releases every day.
6. EdgeRank is so crucial that on average only 7.5% of branded Facebook fans actually see the brands status updates come up in their news feed.
• Create and write status updates that solicit interaction.

Tips

7. The best type of content marketing answers a question before your customers ask.
8. When developing a content strategy go to forums and find out what problems your target audiences are having and also what language they are using.
9. Don’t centralize all your content to your website and social media sites, the only people there are the ones who already know you. To reach new customers try approaches off your sites like guest blogging and Slideshare.
• One of the speakers, Jay Baer had a presentation on his site that got 30 views, he put it on Slideshare and it acquired 22,000 views.

PDF Source

10. The trend in content – smaller is better. Splitting up white papers into different guest blogs could be the best way to get new leads out of content.
11. When writing content for complex or high technology topics, try comparing the topic to something mainstream, example: “Why financial forecasting is like buying wine.”
12. For feature blog posts, consider distributing to sales teams first to send out to their individual client lists before distributing to the public.
13. If you can’t trust your employees on social media you have a hiring problem, not a social media problem.
14. To find your social media voice, listen first, and find out what the community would want from you.
15. Focus on being social not doing social.

Are you sharing the enough content to answer your customers questions before they ask? Do you have enough information available on your site for customers to self educate on your product before making purchases? Is your companies branded social media profile a series of mini press releases? Maybe it’s time to re-visit strategy and make some changes.