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Some years ago, a pimply-nerdy-geek-type told me that traditional B2B communications were dead and that the future was digital. I guffawed, spluttered and muttered outrageousnesses then lay down in a darkened room to sniff some well earned printed collateral. But just because you don’t like it or are unfamiliar with the territory, doesn’t mean it isn’t so. There are some home truths about online brands that every B2B marketer needs to face, and at the moment, they’re not.

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Crowdsourcing broadly means using the power of many to solve problems. The principal can be applied to any challenge where many hands can make light work. It’s a bit of a big deal. One that the B2B marketing community has thus far almost wholly ignored. Brands aren’t about guidelines or products or services, they’re about feelings. Rather than being restricted to the views of a few you can open up the brand discussion to the prospective customers.

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I’ve always been deeply suspicious of anyone introducing themselves as an ‘Entrepreneur’. It’s one of those wank words. I’d been asked to the meeting to discuss social media, so I was slightly perplexed as to why we might need an ‘entrepreneur’ in the room. “Are you entrepreneurial in the social media space?” “No”, he said, “I think social media’s a complete waste of money.”

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The B2B Marketing Magazine seminar on ‘Exploiting Social Media in B2B Marketing’ was quite an eye-opener. Social Media is no longer a fringe subject. There was a room packed with well over a hundred people and the common denominator was everyone seeking a business model for social media activities. I’m not sure if that means the client’s haven’t ‘got it’ yet or if the agencies are trying to keep up – either way, it’s on the agenda. The power has shifted from the corporate propaganda machine to the selective conversations that the customers are prepared to engage with. How’re we going to handle that that then?

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There seem to be two issues of note this year in the B2B marketing space – the agenda and the hidden agenda. The agenda is the recession, the far more interesting hidden agenda was just warming up when the economic shit hit the fan – it’s the Social Media Agenda. Everyone’s formed an opinion or become social media ‘experts’ but there are no experts. No one knows what’s going to work and the whole space is a complete land-grab.

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