Last updated on October 15th, 2016 at 11:48 am
Welcome back to another edition of B2B Trending Conversations, our weekly roundup of what B2B professionals are talking about on Twitter and other social media. This week we bring you a variety of stories from across the B2B spectrum, from tips on B2B marketing success at Salesforce and on pitching B2B stories to business media outlets to great B2B blogs and a podcast on Facebook advertising. If you’re at Dreamforce or any of the other B2B conferences kicking off this week, don’t forget to include us in your tweets and social media posts!
Dreamforce 2016
How to be a #B2B marketing trailblazer at @salesforce#Dreamforce2016! #DF16https://t.co/wQAD4uutRk
— Pardot (@Pardot) August 31, 2016
Another Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual San Francisco mega-conference, is upon us again and the host has tips on how to be a B2B marketing trailblazer during the four-day event. First and foremost, this and every Dreamforce veteran knows the conference offers a dizzying schedule of keynotes, sessions and seminars. Pre-planning is a must, as are comfortable shoes and, ideally, lots of cardiovascular fitness. There will be running. But if you bookmark the best B2B sessions you’ll have a leg up on the madding crowd. Also, don’t be shy — seek out opportunities to connect with peers at the B2B Marketing Cafe and the Marketing Lodge in the regal Palace Hotel. Oh, and don’t forget to have fun! With numerous happy hours and Pardot’s Thursday evening Marketer’s Bash — featuring a private performance by best-selling artist Flo Rida — that shouldn’t be too hard to do.
B2B media
How Does a #B2B Customer Story Crack The Wall Street Journal? #PR by @LouHoffman https://t.co/IycIYmvlu1
— Marsha Collier (@MarshaCollier) October 5, 2016
How does a B2B customer story crack the Wall Street Journal? How can you pitch your B2B story in a way that will convince journalists and editors to publish it? Ishmael’s Corner reverse-engineers an SAP customer story to find out how. Zeroing in on a specific section of a publication increases your odds of success. Offer your targeted publication a scoop or exclusive story. Provide the right pool of content for journalists to draw from. Cover all of these bases and you’ll surely increase your chances of getting your B2B story published.
B2B targeted content (Infographic)
Here’s an #infographic that explains why customizing #content is worth the effort for #B2B marketers … https://t.co/6L6hBymVms
— Mike Bawden/BCS (@BrandCentral) September 27, 2016
B2B marketers agree that one of the best ways to make your content relevant to your prospects is by crafting individualized content for each segment of your audience. One-size-fits-all content just won’t hack it in today’s age of information overload. This infographic from Survey Monkey’s TechValidate details the importance of targeted content, beginning with the fact that fully 47 percent of IT buyers lament the lack of tailored content as major marketing weakness. Successful B2B marketers target content for each phase of the buying process, as well as for various usage models.
B2B marketing (Infographic)
Top 10 Blogs Every #B2B #Marketer Should Read & Follow (infographic) #Marketing pic.twitter.com/TfKIwUQKmP
— Stephen Finnegan (@SFinneganIE) October 5, 2016
Marketers love to share information, insights, tips and best practices. But what to do if you don’t yet have a body of knowledge to share? You lean on industry thought leaders. Stephe Finnegan shares this infographic highlighting the top 10 blogs every B2B marketer should read and follow. From the SEO gurus at Moz and social media super-strategist Amy Porterfield to thought provoker Seth Godin and collaborative economy expert Jeremiah Owyang, you’ll find plenty of forward-thinking insights from B2B marketing thought leaders around the world.
B2B social advertising (Podcast)
Identity’s @Sheamus talks about why #Facebook is now THE #B2B #marketing channel with @CMRLee of @SilFinch. https://t.co/YMM3aK78nj #podcast
— Identity Digital (@Identity_Agency) October 5, 2016
Shea Bennett from the branding and marketing consulting firm Identity Group dives deep into Facebook marketing in this insightful Silvester & Finch podcast. Paid media is an essential and growing part of PR and communications for B2B and B2C companies alike, and social media ad spending is soaring. Bennett details the “massively important shift in the B2B space that has occurred in the past few years” in which Facebook has supplanted Twitter and LinkedIn as the main focus for B2B marketers and discusses some of the exciting marketing features the social media giant is implementing now or in the near future.
That’s all for this week. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of B2B Trending Conversations. Until then, you can check out last week’s column on network, data and cloud security here. As always, keep those pitches and that great B2B content coming our way via @b2bnewsnetwork.
Photo credit: Jon Evans
