Can Social Marketing Work for B2B?

by Charles Sipe

How can companies that target other companies use social technologies to grow their business? Well Forrester Research Vice President Josh Bernoff argues that it can be extremely effective to leverage the power of communities in a B2B environment. The example that he gives is a company called Constant Contact which helps businesses with their email campaigns. They have set up a community focused area of their site called “Connect Up” which allows customers to interact, share knowledge, and help each other. The community of customers can ask each other questions and learn about best practices in email marketing from members in the same business as they are. This helps customers of Constant Contact use the tools more effectively and are likely to be more satisfied customers.

Intuit also has a similar online community for their Quickbooks product where customers can find useful information and get their questions answered by the community. This not only acts as a free support team for Intuit but makes the lives of their customers easier which often leads to customer loyalty and higher satisfaction.