Earlier this summer, I attended the MarketingProfs’ BtoB Forum in Boston and had every intention of posting my thoughts the following week. In a nice (for me) twist, I came away with so many ideas and to dos that I focused on incorporating them into my existing program and quickly forgot about writing a blog post.

But now I’m finally getting around to sharing the key themes that resonated with me from sessions on social media, marketing in a recession and measurement. Each session built on one another, and as a result my notes felt more like a Twitter stream than the linear notes I usually take. Subsequently, I wasn’t able to directly attribute each piece of marketing wisdom to a speaker. However, at the end I have provided links to all the sessions and speakers I attended — and definitely recommend you check them out.

Without further ado, here’s my Top 10 list from the event (in no particular order):

  1. Perspective matters. I’ve attended events focused on “just” communications/PR and always found them to be preaching to the choir. While the event had its fair share of preaching to the choir, there were enough marketing and B2B buyer perspectives represented that added a ton of value. Too often, communications silos itself from marketing and loses sight of the larger, collective goal.
  2. There is still a battle over control when it comes to social media. A lot of questions during the sessions highlighted a fear of losing control of the messaging from marketing departments. At the same time, a lot of responses from self-described social media experts took the tone of “the point of Twitter is …” I think they’re trying hard too to dictate the usage the tools when the reality is that the usage depends on the goal – and (gasp) not every campaign is designed to engage directly with a customer.
  3. Use social media tools to complement existing marketing/comms/PR campaigns. As Sandy Carter of IBM said, “we don’t have a social media strategy, we have a marketing strategy.” Look at social media tools as new mediums to execute against your strategy. For example: include a link to the blog in banner ads; use Twitter to drive booth traffic; supplement a whitepaper with podcasts, etc.
  4. If you pay attention, social media gives you valuable insight. With today’s information overload, everyone agrees that customers and influencers are more savvy and more skeptical – and they can easily detect marketing “hype.” Use videos and blogs and twitter and <insert your customers’ favorite medium> to understand how they want to be marketed to. Listen to the words they use and update your messaging accordingly.
  5. 2009 is about doing better with less. As measurement maven Katie Paine told us, “Measuring isn’t always about proving value, it’s about knowing what’s working and what’s not.” Forrester’s Laura Ramos added in one session, “Without understanding your strategy and having measurable goals, social media can easily become ‘purpose-less’ activity.” A quote from Peter Drucker summed it up: “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Focus on using measurement to see what works and then dial up/down your mix accordingly (listen, learn and change).
  6. Stay true to your company’s goals. Define upfront what success is and how you’ll measure your efforts, including your social media tactics. And don’t confuse popularity with influence. Target your efforts. It’s not necessarily about getting thousands of followers on Twitter, it’s about connecting with people who ultimately influence your sales cycle. Particularly in communications, popularity metrics are an easy out when we don’t have “real” results to report on.
  7. Recognize that social media is different. You can’t take traditional content and just “plug” it into social media and be successful. Most presenters also agreed that social media is hard in B2B because you have to find where your customers are, and how (or even if) they want to be engaged.
  8. Remember your audience is not necessarily your peers. In several sessions, questions were asked about LinkedIn versus Facebook for marketing efforts. The consensus – from an audience of marketers – was that Facebook had more users and was more fun and was therefore better. But over and over, presenters from B2B companies reminded us that our goal isn’t to get in front of marketers, and many B2B buyers don’t want to be sold to on Facebook. In fact, IBM actually surveyed its SOA customers and found out, hands down, that they preferred to hear about vendors on LinkedIn. They don’t necessarily post and interact with vendors there, but they do join groups and read the Q&As to get informed.
  9. Counting is not ROI. Move your metrics framework from the very tactical to being strategic. That’s how to impress the c-suite, but it requires that you can speak in business terms (and if you can’t, focus more on learning about business than social media). Measure business outcomes (market share, share of voice, adoption rate, etc.) not your tactical activity (coverage numbers, leads, downloads, etc.). Realize this means siloed metrics need to feed into broader measurement reports.
  10. Don’t be afraid to “fail” once or twice. Time Magazine’s Steve Johnson told us, “Right now, there’s a tolerance of failure [in social media] that we should embrace. Experiment and innovate now.”

Overall, it was great event – one I’d love to attend next year. As promised, here are links to the presentations I listened to, as well as the speakers’ blogs and Twitter feeds: