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Is Blogging only for B2C Companies?

Not in my opinion. B2B companies can gain tremendous insight from blogging and reading blogs too. Earlier today I spoke with a really interesting group of people at the Mass Technology Leadership Council about social media, blogging, community building, wikis, podcasts and the ability to engage with people online – whether they’re customers, channel partners, the media or fellow employees.

We had a spirited discussion about whether and when B2B companies should jump into blogging from the perspective of thought leadership, brand visibility, open communication with clients and connecting with prospective customers who are doing their own research online. I firmly believe that all companies should think carefully about where their customers are getting information and recommendations about their products and services today. In many B2B segments, the person evaluating products and services is spending time reading blogs, message boards and usenet groups to gain intelligence. This new aspect of the evaluation process can eliminate your company from even getting into the recommendation cycle if you only have a static website and aren’t connecting with people more dynamically.

Many people still think of the blogosphere as a personal communications playground. A place where consumer companies can connect with consumers of everyday products and services but not a place where companies can connect with each other. While the numbers of bloggers who fall into the pure consumer category are staggering, as a percentage, I’ll bet the number of businesses that blog or who have employees reading blogs, is also surprisingly high. I’m going to take a look at the available statistics and provide a summary of B2B blogging insights soon.

In the meantime, Paul Gillin, a contributing writer for BtoB Magazine and a social media and communications consultant was in the audience today and put together a nice summary of the presentation and discussion points on his blog. Todd Van Hoosear, my co-presenter and chief blogger at Topaz Partners, also pulled together a list of some very interesting articles on B2B blogging at their blog,TechPR Gems. (disclosure: Topaz is Cymfony’s PR firm)

Posted by Julie Woods on January 12, 2006 at 08:18 PM | Email this post Permalink

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