Predictions for the Next Ten Years

Social Media and B2B: Why You Should Totally Friend Your Trading Partners

by Allison Tobin
GXS, Director of Corporate Communications and Social Media Strategies

Recently, I was in a social media training class sitting behind a group of early 20-somethings whose most oft-spoken phrase was, “You should totally friend him on Facebook.” They spent the day discussing the latest and greatest posts from various Facebook “friends” and encouraging one another to connect with their respective friends. While random “friending” and constant updates do not constitute a social media strategy per se, they do form the basis for my theory on social media and business-to-business (B2B), which is: embrace the beast!

Two Meanings for Social Media and B2B
Social media and B2B can have two meanings. First, it can refer to B2B companies using popular social media tools for marketing. The tools might include micro-blogging sites such as Twitter and social networks such as Facebook. The goal could be either to promote their companies’ interests or to communicate with customers. Second, social media and B2B can refer to specialized social media tools offered by B2B e-commerce companies, such as GXS, to complement their products or services.

For many people, social media is used exclusively for lighthearted communication with friends. In some cases, the communication is perhaps more frequently with acquaintances from elementary school, with whom we long ago disengaged, but now have rediscovered in cyberspace. Many people use social media tools to demonstrate loyalty to a particular brand, product or cause. It is for this reason, and many others, that B2B companies should embrace social media.

Social Media for Marketing
Social media can and is being adopted by B2B companies in more professional and formal ways. First, many B2B companies are actively using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and blogs to conduct specific campaigns around a particular product, service or topic. In fact, Forrester Research recently issued its 2009 Forrester Groundswell awards¹ recognizing B2B companies that are effectively using social media campaigns to achieve business results. The awards recognized companies like CDW, Dell and Cisco for using a wide variety of social media tools—wikis, blogs, Twitter, webcasts and more. The award winners demonstrated their ability to boost customer satisfaction, increase attendance at conferences or generate qualified leads. In short, the lesson learned is that when social media is embraced by B2B companies and focused campaigns are conducted, actual, documented business results can be achieved and tracked to sales and revenue.

Social Media for the Supply Chain
Social media tools are not just for use in marketing initiatives. For example, some companies offer specialized social media tools to improve supply chain efficiencies. One of the biggest challenges for companies with large groups of trading partners is community management. For large retailers like Target, Walmart or Kohl’s, the process of managing, communicating and transacting with thousands of suppliers is a huge undertaking. B2B e-commerce vendors such as GXS can enable companies to automate their B2B transactions with suppliers and buyers. However, these communities are naturally dynamic and ever-changing. On-boarding a high volume of suppliers and then managing the continual changes such as new document types or new shipment locations is a constant, time-intensive task.  Vendors are beginning to embrace social media technologies to reduce the time and cost of trading partner management. For example, GXS now offers an enterprise community management application called RollStream, referred to by Gartner as “a variation of Facebook for business.”²  RollStream, which refers to both the name of the company and the product, allows customers to on-board trading partners, conduct change management, roll-out new certification programs and to initiate performance scorecarding.

Social Media for Product Development
According to Forrester Research³, which frequently writes about the importance of social media and B2B marketing, “community marketing, supported by the new crop of Web 2.0 tools, lets B2B marketers replace outmoded offer-response-fulfillment tactics with communication that focuses on prospect needs, engages buyers with relevant information, and educates as it embraces.” For example, in February 2007, computer manufacturer, Dell, launched a website called IdeaStorm, enabling consumers to create, vote and discuss new ideas for the company and its products. Called crowd-sourcing, the concept has put Dell in touch with its buyers and enabled it to tap into a nearly unlimited resource for product innovation. Since the IdeaStorm launch, Dell has successfully implemented more than 400 of the 10,000 ideas submitted. Dell’s relatively informal and low-cost social media tool has not only increased brand loyalty, but also enabled the computing manufacturer to tie its use to product purchases and revenue.

Plan for the Digital Natives
We have only witnessed the tip of the iceberg for social media’s use in B2B thus far. The next 10 years will introduce a myriad of innovative applications based upon new and ever-more inventive social media tools. B2B companies need to embrace social media in all its forms and do so in a way that can enable them to track its success and results. Going forward, the next generation of buyers, such as the ones I was sitting behind at the social media conference, will communicate nearly exclusively using social media tools. These digital natives know no other way. Companies in both the B2C and B2B sectors must be ahead of the curve to ensure they can capture that audience.

1 Forrester Research, “2009 Forrester Groundswell Awards Winners Offer B2B Tech Marketers Valuable Social Media Lessons” by Laura Ramos, November 4, 2009.
2 Gartner, “GXS and RollStream Will Help Lower the Cost of Running Large B2B Communities” by Benoit Lheureux, July 31, 2009.
3 Forrester Research, “Making Social Media Work In B2B Marketing” by Laura Ramos, October 21, 2008.