Another great post Justin. I agree with Sue on a key point. B2B social media has huge benefits and ROI. But the soft costs must be anticipated, budgeted and planned for in terms of human and knowledge capital if you want a structured approach. For example, we have had fantastic results building a very focused and exclusive Linked in community around our specific market area of expertise (smart grid).

Part of our commitment to the group is daily news content and blog reviews as well as careful screening of each member “allowed” into the group. We have accepted over 600 members (including hundreds of CEOs) from over 2500 people applying in all to date since our Jan launch. Our focus is quality not quantity and the perception which is quite real that our group is exclusive and focused.

We also ‘mandate’ — in a voluntary nice way so far by asking folks when they join our group — some form of participation.

There are still way too many “looky loos” in B2B social media and while they cost nothing to “carry” and might come around over time, its important to ensure that connections are engaged and committed particularly if a group will have a distinct identity and purpose to expand or enliven a brand.

In our case we built our social media site on the basis of our ‘knowledge’ focused repositioning on a tighter market niche: smart grid. We went to the trouble of designing a custom group logo that is essentially a brand extension of our corporate identity and we drafted and tested a charter after scouting the competition on line by joining and watching to see what was working and (mostly) what sucked so as not to repeat it.

We secured the top thought leaders to the group through a telemarketing and email campaign that assured them their invovlement would be a good investment or their personal brand capital…and we have hand screened each and every member since launch to validate their credentials based on the group charter and to protect the value and quality of the peer group we have built and own. In some cases including phone calls and email references. This is extreme, but it has really increased the “brand” value of our B2B social community greatly as folks email and forward the output content…if its good it draws quality and flies to honey…if its garbage and filled with commercials, recruiters, ect people shut off the tools and the group dies.

Suffice to say its a major investment for our boutique firm and one of our main marketing outbound investments.

To summarize Sue’s point – dont underestimate the human and knowledge capital required to do it correctly. As a strategy advisor I wish I could say we have concrete KPIs and measurables for our investment. (Busted the cook not eating his own meals). But we have several leads and deals closed to date. I would need to take a hard look at my time sheet as I spend alot of time on it at night and on weekends. You really need someone who LOVES social media and engaging people and ideas to run this type of program since folks engage in this 24×7 (often after hours).

Keep up the useful posts and information! Hope my story helps your readers with some ideas.

Great white paper. Very informative and well organized. Cuts through the clutter and lays out a doable strategy. I do think companies need to realize that social media is cheaper in terms of hard costs, but the human costs to set-up and keep up is significant. As you stated, you have to be in it for the long haul and have a clear objective. That’s much easier said than done.