Socializing Solutions: Four Priorities for Solutions Marketing and Sales

There's little doubt any more that social media can play an important role in marketing B2B solutions. But exactly how that should happen is less clear. Although some solutions firms have engaged with social media for years now, many more are just beginning to take it seriously and explore what might work.

According to a recent ITSMA study of large technology and consulting firms: 

• Only half of large B2B tech firms have an established program to monitor online conversations about their company.
• Only one third of the companies have identified internal subject matter experts and assigned them to engage with customers and others in online social conversations.
• Only half of the companies have a well organized process for disseminating content through social media channels.

Further, in all three of these areas, most of the companies with such a program in place have implemented it only within the past year.

Not surprisingly, many solutions marketers are wondering what types of initiatives make sense, how they should organize, and how best to measure the impact of their efforts. The pace of change with social media is overwhelming, and the array of options seemingly endless.

From our perspective here at Solutions Insights, the proper starting point is your solutions strategy. Focusing on core priorities for solutions can provide essential guidance for what types of social media initiatives might be appropriate.

For many solutions companies, those priorities include: identifying new opportunities, creating compelling offers, strengthening customer connections, and accelerating the sales cycle. If these are your priorities, a social media strategy for solutions might look something like this:

1. Identifying new opportunities for growth: Using social tools and processes such as crowdsourcing and innovation jams to identify customer challenges and potential solutions faster and across a broader range of constituents
2. Creating compelling offerings: Using collaboration tools and online communities to maximize customer involvement throughout the offer development process to ensure alignment with customer needs
3. Strengthening customer connections: Using listening tools, blogs, Twitter, communities and other social tools and channels to build trusted relationships by providing ongoing customer education and support
4. Accelerating the sales cycle: Using internal communities and collaboration tools to assist the sales force with faster and easier access to essential resources and subject matter experts

The point, of course, is that social media is a means, not an end. It can be awfully tempting to just jump into the social media waters. But "let's set up a YouTube channel and get a bunch of people on Twitter" is hardly a recipe for solutions success. Social media can indeed play an important part as companies look for new ways to generate growth and maximize results with limited resources, but only if strategy comes first. 

For more on tapping the power of social media for solutions marketing and sales, including our four-phase approach to building an integrated, sustainable program, check out our new Point of View report, Socializing Solutions: Tapping Social Media for Solutions Success.