All businesses want to create or manage their reputation, and online media or “digital marketing” plays an important role in achieving this objective. According to a report by E&Y on social media, top social media platforms used by businesses in India, today, are Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin and blogs. However, most B2B brand owners feel that these platforms are not suitable for them. Here are a few alternatives beyond the Usual Social Media Suspects for B2B businesses.
1. Thought Leadership Through Online Communities
What makes the CEO of a B2B firm excited is the sight of a live, healthy discussion about the brand. He envisages a platform where an online community can talk about its brand news, thought leadership, customer acquisition/retention, lead generation/management and create positive word of mouth. Long gone are the days where creating brand awareness used to be the priority. Although online platforms like Facebook and Youtube do the job of creating positive brand awareness, let us agree that they incline more towards the individual, personal or consumer end of the spectrum. Today, everything is about effective use of content and creating a knowledge pool that can be used and shared by many. We came across few online communities, if you know about more do share it with us.
2. Document Discovery via Slideshare and Scribd
While traditional popular social media has been explored to the T, there are several emerging avenues to facilitate this endeavour. For instance, platforms like Slideshare and Scribd with almost 60+ mn visitors/day and 75+ mn visitors/day respectively are changing the face of online marketing. Professionals from various industries are always in search of relevant content and this gives an opportunity to the brand to create a knowledge pool wherein they can highlight their strength, and thus automatically create positive word of mouth. It also provides a facility werein user can embed the document within their website and you can also do the same. Brand can also tag their document in different ways – technology, branding, corporate practice etc, increasing the chance of being found. We are planning to share our marketing collaterals on these platforms, what do you think about privacy issues? 