- SAP Managed Tags:
"Social marketing advice today is predominantly geared to B2C organizations which are fundamentally different from the B2B world. Yet, we know that business-to-business commerce and interactions can benefit greatly from social business practices, and that B2B organizations can have exponential impacts on the global marketplace.
‘42 Rules’ offers valuable, practical guidance for B2B marketers at all levels. The content is well organized for easy reference, includes quick ideas to implement, and is supported by real-world examples."
Mark Yolton, Senior Vice President of Digital, Social and Communities at SAP
COMING SOON: 42 Rules for B2B Social Media Marketing
With a foreword by Ray Wang.
All author book royalties are going to be donated to the Khan Academy, an organization committed to providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. The publisher, Happy About, is matching our contribution dollar for dollar.
The Journey
I've always wanted to write a book, I just always thought it would be a novel. But here it is, only weeks away from release: a social media marketing book. It's targeted at B2B marketing professionals but useful for anybody who wants to integrate social media into their tool kit. I am blessed to have been invited by my wonderful co-authors Michael Procopio and Peter Spielvogel to embark on this book writing journey. It's been a lot more time-consuming than I expected (think part-time MBA) but it has also been one of the most rewarding things I have ever attempted. I sincerely hope you will learn as much from reading the book as I have learned from writing it.
So What’s it About?
This book helps the reader to stay relevant as a marketing professional and avoid common mistakes. Social media is changing the way people think about marketing. It’s much more than pushing out the same content through new channels.
1. Start Listening
The biggest shift: marketing communications has become a bi-directional discipline, where you can (and must) listen to your customers rather than just talk to (at) them. But, with so many social media channels and new rules of engagement, even seasoned marketing professionals sometimes get stuck on where to begin.
2. Know the Difference in B2B
This book was created for business-to-business (B2B) marketing professionals who need to move quickly towards a marketing mix that now includes social media. While B2B marketing is still the commonly used term to differentiate it from business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, social media – and the future of marketing – is about people-to-people (P2P) communications.
3. Learn Practice vs. Theory
Learn from a combined 20 years of hands-on social media experience. We provide you guidance on how to understand market requirements, engage in conversations with customers, build awareness for solutions, and generate targeted leads. Using a combination of best practices and use cases, it will quickly become clear how to maximize your return on investment with LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and other popular online channels. Michael and Peter are amazing resources and I have learned so much from editing their chapters.
4. Implement Quickly
The phased approach used in the book will enable you to make steady progress as you move into social media without getting overwhelmed by too many options. Providing small, well-defined chunks, the book makes it easy to integrate what you learn into your existing marketing strategy and day-to-day execution, step by step, while avoiding classic mistakes like over-committing resources., If you want to remain relevant as a marketing professional and avoid common mistakes, read this book.
What’s in the book? A Sample of the TOC
- Section I – Mixing Social Media into Your Marketing
- Section II – Creating Social Media Content
- Section III – Leveraging Key Social Media Sites
- Section IV – Engaging Effectively in Social Media
- Section V – Using Social Media in the sales cycle
- Section VI – Putting Social Media into practice
My Wonderful Co-Authors
Peter Spielvogel uses social media extensively to listen to customer sentiment, build awareness, and generate targeted leads for SAP. @PeterSpielvogel
Michael Procopio consults with Fortune 1000 customers on social media and social intelligence. @MichaelProcopio
The Foreword
Ray was so kind to write a thoughtful foreword to our book. THANK YOU, Ray! Ray's blog.
Stay tuned for more about the book on this blog and on our official book site: B2BSociaMediaMarketingBook.com.
We'll be re-directing and adding a lot of additional social media resources to the site in the future.
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