Calysto: Social Media Can Guide B2B Companies to Success

Business-to-business companies (B2B) in the communications industry can remain competent and successful if they add social media into their marketing strategy, suggests social media marketing company Calysto Communications, citing recent surveys.

“Past studies have shown that as many as 75 percent of those who make technology buying decisions in B2B use social media for business reasons,” said Laura Borgstede, CEO of Calysto Communications.

Calysto has cited two survey reports to drive home its points. One is a survey conducted by technology media company TechTarget, which stated that online IT communities were driving the purchasing decisions of a majority of IT professionals it spoke to.

Another study by research firm AMR International predicted that B2B advertising spent on social media and lead generation sites might grow at an annual rate of 21 percent and 17 percent respectively through 2013.

Calysto has meanwhile listed out some tips aiming to help these companies chart a way into the social media.

To begin, it said, companies can create Facebook (News - Alert) pages or Twitter accounts as that will drive traffic to their sites proving a channel to communicate with a list of potential customers. An account with Facebook or Twitter helps to capture e-mail addresses or wireless numbers to support e-mail or mobile marketing campaigns.

“You do not have to launch a blog, start tweeting and build a Facebook or LinkedIn (News - Alert) community all at once,” the firm noted.

A blog is only as effective as the content it provides – and you need help from your executives to create that content. So getting support for your social media efforts across the organization is critical, the firm said.

“A well thought-out social media marketing strategy engages a cross-functional team with representatives from several departments, making social media 1 percent of 100 individual’s jobs rather than 100 percent of one person’s job,” said Dorothéa Bozicolona-Volpe, a Calysto Communications social media director.

 “One of the big myths about social media is that it’s expensive to do it right,” Borgstede said. “An investment of just a few thousand dollars can, for instance, improve your site’s search engine rankings dramatically. But you need to know how to complete tasks such as key word searches and tagging correctly – or all your efforts will be for naught.”