Mike Moran, former search evangelist (and distinguished engineer) at IBM, became the chief strategist at Converseon, Inc., a search and social media-focused marketing firm last month. Carol Krol sat
down with him to discuss the challenges that b-to-b marketers sometimes face in adapting to search and social media practices.
"In b-to-c, social media tends to be entertaining and
funny," Moran said. "That's not necessarily true with b-to-b. The best b-to-b social media solves problems." He said that the trick for b-to-b marketers was to become an expert in solving the problem
that plagues their target market.
Moran also said that social media and search were great b-to-b tools because they allow business owners to find out about available products on
their own time. "A lot of b-to-b products are complex and require a lot of information to understand," he said. "The least favorite way for b-to-b customers to learn how to solve a problem is to have
a salesperson in their face pitching them. It's time-intensive and it puts them in an uncomfortable social situation where they may have to say no. [It's] better to engage them online through search
and social media. You'll get many more people to engage with that type of message than the salesperson can."
Read the whole story at BtoB Online »