With so much buzz about social media's role in marketing today, many Industrial marketers still question its value on the job. Few doubt that social media has a role in business-to-consumer marketing, but question its potential impact in business-to-business marketing and sales. Many industrial suppliers maintain internal social media access or administrative restrictions for security or productivity reasons.
Well...the ground shook last month when the DOD announced it had launched a new social media initiative across all branches of service. So...if the DOD recognizes social media’s importance, lowers barriers and in fact promote its use...well the implications for DOD business partners are obvious.
Further, GlobalSpec announced this week that its advertisers will be able to link social media sites right along with their individual company profiles. This is a tremendous indication that today’s most savvy Industrial marketers "get it."
What’s behind the DOD and GlobalSpec policy changes? What do these factors imply for industrial marketers in general? Are we rapidly moving through the “early adopter” phase in B2B social media? What will it mean to be “behind the curve”? Are your employees “doing social media” anyway, even in the workplace on their own devices? Let’s talk about it.
Social media is a really big deal. The population of the United States is estimated to be 304,059,724. Facebook, for example, has more than 300,000,000 active users. Fifty percent of those active users log on in a day. LinkedIn has over 50,000,000 members, spanning over 200 countries. Every Fortune 500 company has executives that are members of LinkedIn. You can use these online hangouts for branding and lead generation. They are the ideal way to quickly promote your business for free, my favorite price.
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