Over at MarketingProfs, Paul Dunay asks, Is Social Media More Difficult in B2B Than B2C? He says yes. I say, yes, but no.
Huh? Paul starts out with something that I really disagree with:
When I say Ralph Lauren, Nine Inch Nails, Vineyard Vines, GAP – or even Apple – you get a sense of a very homogeneous type of person. You get a picture of exactly who I mean and the “lifestyle” that brand portrays. When I say Ralph Lauren, it’s like reading the preppie handbook.
I do get the images that Paul was probably thinking of when he wrote that, but I also think those images are probably wrong… and social media offer you a way to find out how wrong they might be. Sure, Nine Inch Nails makes me think of a formerly disaffected 32 year old, and Ralph Lauren makes me think of polo players in Connecticut, but let’s face it: those may be brand perceptions that marketers are trying to create, but that’s not the same as the customers. I heard about the latest NIN release on Twitter from a middle aged technology editor with a wife and kids, and Ralph Lauren clothes are worn by lots of people who’d fall off a horse if they tried to play polo. Similarly, my sister turned me on to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and while that might make you think of a young demographic, we’re two among many middle aged fans.
That’s where the power of social media come in. When my sister was visiting and said “Oh, come on, let’s watch this show, you’ll love it!” that was social media in action - though offline social media in this case, the enabling technology being a couch. But when non-profile-fitting Nine Inch Nails fan starts Twittering about the new release available for download to other non-profile-fitting listeners, that’s not just social media in action - it’s also something you can observe to find out more about who loves your brand, why they love it, and who they are telling about it.
Which brings me back around to B2B and B2C. Conceptually, social media for B2C branding is easier to get a handle on. People like to tell their friends about things that matter to them, and B2C products often touch deep, emotional chords in people. Here’s my favorite band. I love this wine. You need to go eat at Joe’s. My iPhone is the best thing ever.
That doesn’t, however, mean that turning customers into brand ambassodors empowered by social media is an easy task. I have a brand of detergent that I love and to which I’m quite loyal, but I’m unlikely to tell you about it unless you say, “I have a lot of allergies, I can’t find a detergent that works for me.” I’ve talked about the one and only brand of plush dog toys that my pup can’t destroy in five minutes - but not by name, just as a puppy update on my personal blogs for his online fan club who’ve watched him growing up via blog posts and photos. It’s just not that easy to get people so engaged in a brand that they want to tell everyone about it, or to create compelling content about that brand they’ll want to pass around.
But when you do that, you’ve struck gold.
B2B is harder to sort out. It’s hard enough to get people talking about dog toys, even though they love their dogs; how do you get them talking about VoIP services or software platforms or enterprise network monitoring solutions? Well, they’re unlikely to become brand ambassadors.
But they do have a network of trusted peers that they will turn to when they have questions about these things. And those peers are generally eager to share knowledge. And you don’t have to hit that magic button that makes somebody laugh out loud and think, “I’ve got to send this to my friends!” You need to be useful and relevant and provide valuable information.
That takes work, but it’s also in many ways much easier. Maybe that’s my history as a B2B marketer talking, but it’s easier to analyze business needs and feature requirements than the “wow” factor, at least for me.
I’ve oversimplified here, of course; there are emotional and factual components to both B2B and B2C marketing, and the same people are making purchasing decisions in both; their personalities don’t transform when they arrive at the office and start thinking about enterprise purchases rather than household purchases.
The bottom line, though, is that in social media, as in all media, B2B and B2C have common elements but are different animals.