Going social in B2B: seven automatic actions for every piece of content

Time was, you generated a piece of thought leadership content, stuck it on your website and eNewsletter, then sat back counting the hits.  Today, whenever we produce a new piece of content for a client — whether it’s a video, an eBook, white paper, blog post or podcast — we immediately start engaging with the relevant communities to spread the word.

Here’s our a 7-step action list to drive the new content into the market via social media.

1) We blog about our own new content.

2) We tweet about the new content to our followers — and they re-tweet if they find it useful.

3) We post comments on the right blogs, linking to the content (avoiding overt spam – keeping it relevant).

4) We bookmark the download page on the key social bookmarking sites.

5) We engage with dozens of groups on LinkedIn and Facebook posting links to the new content and trying to start discussions.

6) We issue press releases through the distribution services.

7) We put the content out there on its own – on video sharing and slide-sharing sites; as an article on BizNik; as excerpts to favourite bloggers…

The first flush of excitement about social marketing in B2B has settled down. Now digital marketers are starting to figure out the real benefits.  At Velocity, we’re using social media as part of pretty much every campaign.  For us, it’s all about discovering the communities of interest that are spontaneously evolving all over the web, and engaging with them for our clients.