Social Networks Get Down to Business

There has been a lot of discussion recently about whether B2B companies are really utilizing social media to grow their businesses. Given the fact that social media is about, well, socializing, it's a valid question. According to a new report released by eMarketer, the answer is a resounding yes. According to the report:

As the number of business users of social networks continues to increase, advertising expenditures will rise, too. In the US this year, advertisers will spend $40 million to reach a business audience on online social networks, and that is just the beginning. According to eMarketer projections, that ad spending will reach $210 million in 2012.

"As compelling as the ad growth is, marketers will spend far more over the next few years to create and manage their own social networks for business customers, partners, suppliers and vendors," says Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, B2B Marketing on Social Networks: Engaging the Business Audience. "These business networks will serve a range of purposes, from improving customer communication and collaboration to aiding product development."

A clear sign of the revolution in business thinking and behavior is the popularity of LinkedIn—the most widely known professional social network—where the audience has more than doubled in the past year, and the rise of additional business-oriented networks, including a raft of networks aimed at verticals.

Personally, I've witnessed numerous companies successfully leverage social media to help them build their customer base and reach new audiences - especially with blogs and creating their own social networking groups. It will be interesting to watch this trend continue.

Communicating in Beijing

And now a special post from our own Ramonna Tooley who is attending the Olympics in Bejing...

You probably won’t be surprised when I tell you that the little Spanish I know does me absolutely no good in China. That said, I keep resorting to it when trying to communicate because it’s the only foreign language I know. Here in Beijing, however, there is nothing about the language that is familiar to English or Spanish – or anything else I can conjure up for that matter. Regardless, everyone here tries very hard to communicate beyond the “hello” and “thank you” that I’ve learned in Mandarin. The volunteers at the venues are very good at saying, “Nice to meet you” and “Please turn around” (as they wand you in security) and “This way, please.”

My favorite recent example of communication is the sweet cab driver who pulled out a book that listed several countries and pointed to United States of America, to which I nodded enthusiastically. He then did the breaststroke in the air to ask if I’d gone to see swimming at the Olympic venue. I had really gone to see gymnastics, but I didn’t know how to motion that in the air in the cab, so, I said that I had seen swimming.

Upon exiting the cab, I provided my new friend with a USA Basketball Olympic pin, which he seemed to really appreciate. He waved the whole way as I walked through security to go into the hotel. One more good thing on the first sunny day I’ve spent in China and the day I saw the Americans win gold and silver medals at the women’s gymnastics all-around competition!

PS – When I went to Blogger to post this, the Web site was in Mandarin and wouldn’t let me log in. That’s why I asked Ashley to post this for me. So much for communication!

Get Connected: Three Speakers - Three Great Points of View

Last week GroundFloor Media hosted the latest in its Get Connected series, this time focused on the emerging world of social media. The three guest speakers included Tara Anderson from Lijit (http://www.lijit.com/), Tiffany Childs from Yelp (http://www.yelp.com/), and James Clark from Room 214 (http://www.room214.com/).

Tara, Tiffany and James provided insight and answered questions about social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and other technologies that are quickly staking their importance as communications outlets for public relations professionals. The insight shared at the meeting was insightful and had it not been for a necessary stopping point, I think we might still be chatting about best practices, tips and tricks for keeping up with these exciting new outlets! Briefly, here are the top tips given by each of the panelists as parting words for the event attendees:

• Tara suggested that anyone dabbling in social media, particularly those representing a company, don't act robotic. Be yourself!


• Tiffany had two great tips. Since people are talking about you, you might as well listen. And, she suggested that in the case of a negative review or posting or article, you step back, calm down and think your response through before you send it. In the world of social media, a hasty, heated response is likely to be cut and pasted faster than you can say "Whoops!"
  
• James suggested updating your contact book and starting to connect with your friends, family and colleagues through social media. The more you participate in social media on a personal level, the more savvy you'll become and soon it will become a natural part of your business practice.

The New Look of Facebook: Love it or hate it?

I've gotten a lot of questions in recent weeks about Facebook's new user design. (If you haven't seen it yet, just log into your usual account through this URL.) To be honest, I'm still processing how I feel about it. I applaud Facebook for keeping things simple and clean and not being wooed by splashy bubbles or cheesy graphics. This was (and still is) one of my biggest reasons for switching from MySpace to Facebook in the first place. I also like that my profile is now spread across multiple tabs instead of one ridiculously long page that requires about 30 minutes to scroll through. At the same time, I'm a creature of habit and I've really gotten comfortable with the old/current user interface. I know it's cliche, but I have to wonder... why fix it if it ain't that broke?

I'd love to hear what you guys think about the new design. Love it? Hate it? Still deciding like me?

And if you find yourself stumbling around the new design, Laurence John just did a blog post on www.makeuseof.com called "Finding your way around the new Facebook. He has a pretty strong opinion about the design, but also highlights the points you won't want to miss.