On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of moderating a great panel conversation on the use of social media in B2B sales and marketing.  The panelists included Anne Plese from Cisco, Tom Vaughn from Microsoft, and Ari Newman from Jive Software.

The discussion was all in keeping with MLC’s B2B research this year, Influencing the Newly Empowered Customer, in which we suggest marketers need to build conversation muscle in the mid-funnel, as customers engage sales forces later and later in the purchase cycle.

Huge thanks to Anne, Tom and Ari for sharing their wisdom.  And so much of it!  There were too many nuggets to share them all here, so I’ll include some of the ones that stuck out for me:

Think about “stop/start”. Anne talked about scaling back on the number of white papers being written, and instead funneling that energy into social media.  As marketers, it is all too easy to try to use all of the new touchpoints to engage customers, because they are there.  However, that’s death for marketing teams on tight budgets. There simply isn’t time or resource to do them all well.  If you are going to start with social media marketing, figure out early on what you’re going to stop or scale back.

To Facebook or not to Facebook? There was an interesting discussion, and a little disagreement on the panel, over whether every B2B should have a Facebook page. Some on the panel said “why not?”  Others said “probably not every B2B”.  Cisco is finding Facebook is a new referral engine, as a place where loyal ambassadors of then Cisco brand connect with Cisco. That probably works for B2B brands with a popular presence in culture. For other B2B brands, there are likely better areas to invest precious time and energy than on Facebook.

Mix paid/earned/owned/shared media. Tom at Microsoft shared a great example of using banner ads (paid media) to showcase social comments and threads happening in real time about its products (earned or shared media).  In this case, the paid media amplifies the highly trusted social media, drawing more parties to the conversation.

Bring structure to your social efforts. Ari shared an example of a detailed editorial calendar for Jive’s social marketing efforts leading up to its annual conference. He pointed out that many business people have a perception that social media is all chaos.  It’s not.  The best social media marketers bring a deliberate, thoughtful, planned approach to social media.

Look for natural “triggers”, don’t invent something new. Too often, B2Bs try to do something new with social media.  Anne’s guidance was to think first in terms of how social media can boost predictable business events, such as product launch or big events.  Much easier to demonstrate returns on social media if they are hitched to an existing, critical business activity.

Don’t tweet or blog drunk. Nothing good comes of this.

One Wide Angle reader suggested I ask the panelists “What’s next in B2B social media?”  Here’s my paraphrasing of the panelists comments:

Hardwiring social media into roles and incentives. Until now, social media has largely been an activity done off the side of the desk, or perhaps by dedicated employees (community managers and the like).  Cisco is going to start weaving social media presence and effectiveness into the core evaluative criteria of its marketers more broadly.  Marketers who have a stronger social graph and can drive business outcomes via social media will advance faster and get paid more.

Integrating social media into the sales pipe.  None of the panelists claimed complete success in embedding social media into the mid- to lower-funnel, so as to improve sales metrics like deal size, velocity and profitability.  That seems to be a next frontier in B2B social media.

Corporate websites becoming social media properties! Several of the panelists mentioned the integration of social into their corporate web sites, boosting the authenticity and trustworthiness of the information.  That will lead to stickier web interactions with prospects and customers.

That’s my top line.

If you’d like to see some of the slides the panelists shared with the audience, shoot me an email at pspenner@executiveboard.com. Oh, and lean on MLC’s social media resource center for all manner of support tools, templates, strategy builder workbooks, and more.

Related posts:

1. Demonstrating the Value of Social Media for B2Bs
2. Social Proof in the B2B Purchase Experience
3. B2B Marketers – Build Trust with Social Media
4. Social Media: A Scary Proposition for B2Bs
5. How To Take Advantage of Social Media in Highly Regulated Environments