Social networks as a platform for B2C sales and communication are well established, the drift from print to online marketing demonstrates this clearly. A recent study by Outsell shows that online marketing now accounts for over 30% of the total marketing budget. In facebook and youtube, companies selling to consumers (Coca Cola, BMW or apple for example) are well represented while suppliers of ingredients or parts are hard to find.

B2B customer relations differ from B2C in a number of ways.

  • Relations are built to individuals, but these individuals act as members of an organization, not as consumers.
  • Decisions to purchase involve a number of individuals, each with their own aims and motivation.
  • Requirements may be influenced by personal egos and emotions, but will largely depend on business demands.

This makes the use of social platforms for B2B CRM more of a challenge but is certainly a challenge which cannot be ignored. In the business as in the consumer world, people use the internet as a primary source of information and communication. For CRM applications, new installations tend to build social functionality into the company CRM application.  However, existing public platforms do have a place for some activities at least on the basis that individuals involved in a B2B purchase may base their opinion on consumer information. The following table may help.

  Marketing Sales Support
youtube Viral marketing. Product related spots. Image (example: Salesforce) Not suitable. Technical information (example: “torque converter”)
wikipedia Technical details where relevant (example: pharmaceuticals) Not suitable. Not suitable.
twitter Product information (example: Bosch) Indirectly by links Not suitable.
facebook Little used, potential customers will tend to search the web. Not suitable. Technical information and help (example: Intel)