I am attending the MarketingProfs B2B conference in Boston June 8th & 9th and it seems that at least 1/3 of all sessions are devoted to social media: measuring its impact on business, bringing it in house, interactive Q&A sessions around the topic…Which leads me to this quick “checklist” of things that have come out of this discussion:

• Look at leaders successfully monetizing social media in a b2b environment; BMC Software is an example mentioned during Katie Paine’s session
   
• Understand that social media is not “free”; it requires a significant allocation of resources and time in order to have an impact
• If you are “tweeting”, get a handle on both reach and influence using some great tools: Twinfluence.com, Twittergrader 
• Tools like Socialmention and Xinureturns are wonderful tools for looking at broader social media impact
   
• Consider using dedicated URL’s: e.g. www.YourCompany.com/Twitter  in order to track activity generated by source
   
• Search Twitter for key terms related to your business and connect with those posters you find most consistently have relevant content related to your brand

An interesting insight from one session: larger enterprises often have the challenge of organizing and presenting content–especially through social media; smaller businesses are challenged to develop content. Which begs the question: if you are a smaller organization, who will produce the content necessary to fuel your social media efforts?

A clear theme that relates directly to this point, one echoed by many at the conference: don’t start what you can’t finish. If you aren’t serious about finding a way of making social media meaningful for your business–whether in terms of brand recognition, lead generation or customer communication–it’s more likely that you’ll launch abortive efforts.

Best of luck, and you can follow us on Twitter.

Tags: Social Media, Twitter