I thought this was quite an interesting article from eMand C because its focus is on how businesses can use microblogging. The article was written back in August. Blake Cahill the writer of the article highlights ways in which businesses can effectively use microblogging (for example Twitter) to grow sales and enhance their brands.
There were only three comments on this article (one of which was mine) however one of the comments asked for examples of businesses where Social Media has worked for B2B, because all the examples seem to be B2C.
I commented that companies need to try out these tools for themselves as part of their marketing strategy to see if they work for them in their situation.
Blake Cahill mentions five ways companies can use microblogging, for example to:
- Monitor the industry and competitors
- Track conversations going on about your company and brand
- Grow sales
- Enhance customer service
- Expand communication with stake-holders
I had five more suggestions:
- Publish articles? – Twitter can help you tell your community whenever you have a new article published
- Do you blog? – You can “tweet” each new blog post to your community and drive traffic to your blog
- Holding a webinar/seminar? – Use Twitter to tell your community. You can also invite people to post questions
- Has your company done something ground-breaking? You can both blog and tweet it.
- Launching or re-launching a product or service? Again, “tweet” to your community
There are many more benefits for businesses whether these are B2C or B2B. To achieve the greatest benefits companies should start by enabling the entire company to understand microblogging, and how the business can to use it in achieving their goals. One way to get this underway is to brainstorm. Ask various areas of the company how microblogging might benefit them. Many companies don’t have this exoertise in-house… but you can engage Social Media Consultants to guide you.
Got a comment? Is your business using – or planning to use – microblogging? Share your comments here.
