Social Media and B2B

BUSINESS 2 BUSINESS

B2B (business-to-business), is the exchange of products, services, or information between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers. It’s a modified version of what used to be Manufacturer-Wholesaler-Retailer chain earlier. Now this chain is like this :

Retail Outlet 1

Manufacturer 1

B2B DC

Retail Outlet 2

Manufacturer 2

Retail Outlet 3

Manufacturer 3

Retail Outlet 4

Manufacturer 4

Retail Outlet 5

Manufacturer 5

SOCIAL MEDIA

To define social media break the word down into two halves. Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication.

In today’s tem social media would be a website that would interact with you while providing information. This interaction could be simple or complex. Simple as in asking for your votes or comments and complex as in recommending something to you based on other peoples votes.

Think of regular media as a one-way street where you can read a newspaper or listen to a report on television, but you have very limited ability to give your thoughts on the matter. Social media, on the other hand, is a two-way street that gives you the ability to communicate too.

Any website that invites you to interact with the site and with other visitors falls into the definition of social media.

Some examples of social media web sites are :

* Social Bookmarking.

* Social News.

* Social Networking.

* Social Photo and Video Sharing.

* Wikis.

Now let us examine the impact of Social Media on B2B.

Today being in business is all about being social, to what degree, is a challenge for to marketers. How and where to find out customers on social networks is very crucial. And equally crucial is the question of which among the mass are your target customers and the segment you want to cater to.

It’s now possible to append your B2B customer and prospect databases with social media addresses and other...