Do Your B2B Communications Bore?

On Thursday night last week I scuttled off to talk B2B communications and social media to a bunch of people who work for a B2B company that have twelve offices throughout Sweden. After showing them how social media represents a paradigm shift in the way we communicate, I looked at examples of how other companies working within B2B convey their sense of personality and key competences on the web.

Facebook, Blogs or Twitter?

As I was talking all things social, the majority of my presentation looked at how other businesses use social communications channels in the B2B space.

Looking at a rather dry selection of B2B communications on corporate websites, I complained about how much they were lacking in personality and then contrasted them with a few examples I like including my friends at Arment Dietrich.

I chose to showcase Gini’s sites because they do two things that B2Bs can really learn from. They both

• show personality and
• build trust and credibility.

Personality

What I like most about Arment Dietrich’s blog, corporate site, and Facebook page is that they ooze personality. Particularly that of CEO, Gini Dietrich.

On the blog there’s a weekly vlog that shows Gini – cycling gear and all, or maybe a hotel backdrop – answering a crowdsourced question from the Facebook Page. For example:

As I’ve written before, this kind of B2B communications gesture shows that the people that run a company are approachable.

If your CEO is uncomfortable in front of a camera, get them to produce a podcast instead. Mitch Joel over at Twist Image is a perfect example of a CEO showing personality, engagement and credibility with audio. His regular podcast, talking to stacks of industry leaders and commentators working with online marketing and communications is absolutely outstanding.

Text alone doesn’t give people who prefer visual or audio content the same kind of impression of your B2B organization.

Go Look & Learn

Fundamentally, I believe B2B’s can learn from strategies those demonstrated by both Arment Dietrich and Twist Image. Too often companies fall into the trap of creating anonymous, corporate sites that lack a distinct sense of personality, relying on corporate speak text that doesn’t connect with an audience.

With even seniors managers getting on Facebook, we’re seeing a paradigm shift in the kind of communicative strategies that we use on the web. We’re far more used to “talking” digitally, rather than creating brochure-like posturing that lacks warmth, personality and engagement.

With Gini’s videos – and the engaging comments by the likes of community manager Daniel Hindin – or Mitch’s audio podcasts you get the enthusiasm and energy these people and their organizations will bring to the work they do for you.

Trust & Credibility

The reason I also talked about Arment Dietrich’s blog is the way they bring in other folks from the industry to talk write guest posts. Such a gesture is an incredibly strong way of building trust and credibility because this shows that other people working in the industry are happy to be associated with Arment Dietrich. This is a great way of showing credibility within an industry, instead of just talking about it as many B2B companies do with their “Best practice blah blah blah” and “Industry leading yawn yawn yawn.”

Taking a Stand

One response to my talk was that “It’s only creative industries that can get away with this.”

Personally, I utterly reject the idea that it’s only creative communications agencies and PR firms that should be participating in the B2B space with dynamic, engaging content. Any B2B can benefit from showcasing the team behind a company, the energy and creativity they bring to their industry.

So start the week by asking yourself what are you doing with your B2B communications to show personality, build trust and credibility with your online communications? Do you have a Facebook page that shows a different side to the way you work and who you are? Are you on Twitter responding personally to people’s questions, comments and observations? And does your corporate copy set out to engage rather than bore?