Let’s explore a facet of social media that’s often ignored — B2B (define) social media. Last month, my agency ran a social media seminar at the New England Direct Marketing Association Conference. When an audience member asked about B2B social media, Bianca Garcia, one of our star media planners, jumped right in with a lot of good information. She has a special gift for navigating the social media landscape, so I interviewed her for more information.
Harry Gold: Who are you and what do you do?
Bianca Garcia: I’m a media planner for Overdrive Interactive, and my job includes planning, buying, implementing and optimizing online and social media campaigns. I first joined the search marketing team at Overdrive before moving to the media department. I have an MBA and prior to working for Overdrive, I worked for “Cosmopolitan” magazine, “Seventeen” magazine, and Leo Burnett. My background in search and traditional media has greatly contributed to a well-rounded understanding of online campaigns.
HG: We all know that social media marketing is good for B2C (define), but are there any sites that are good for B2B?
BG: LinkedIn would be an obvious choice, but there are also industry-specific networking sites like ITtoolbox (where you can tap into a huge professional IT community), the Minyanville Exchange (a financial social networking site), Designer Pages (for architecture and design), and lots of others. However, keep in mind that “traditional” social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, even Twitter have B2B profiles and profiles where people often list their professions. So you can do certain kinds of B2B targeting by profession.