Is it social media or just multimedia?
As you know, good examples of B2B social media marketing are thin on the ground at the moment. And they are all the harder to find when many B2B companies seem to confuse social media with multimedia. You know the kind of thing: people who believe that posting a few corporate videos to YouTube counts as 'social media marketing'. Now don't get me wrong - using video is not to be discouraged as a medium, but unless you have true interaction you still have one-way communication. It's really little more than advertising messages delivered by a new and funky channel.
But this week I found how easy it is to jump to conclusions...
It happened when I read the latest instalment on the excellent SocialMedia B2B blog, run by Kipp Bodnar and Jeff Cohen. Kipp had showcased some superb recent work by Scania, a truck manufacturer, who had created what they called a "social media newsroom". Scania had taken what is traditionally an area of a corporate website with archived press releases and a few downloadable logos, and turned it into an all-singing, all-dancing multimedia centre where press information on Scania is combined with every imaginable social media feed: high-quality photographs of the trucks on Flickr, a series of well-produced videos on YouTube and links to Facebook, Twitter etc.
It was beautiful. It was impressive. The trucks were huge. But for me there was still something important missing before this can really be called a true "social media" activity - the conversation. There were a few short comments after the videos, but beside each news item was the telling statement: "No comments". I explained to Kipp how, for me, this wasn't social media but multimedia, and I was all set to jump onto my soapbox when Erica Zandelin from Scania joined in the conversation.
Erica explained that Scania is in fact just at the first stage of their social media strategy. The newsroom you see now is admittedly low on two-way dialogue. But why should Scania rush into such an important area? Erica explained that the idea was first to share and distribute multimedia content via the site, thus driving traffic to it, and then to test the blogging platform. In time, they will produce more content, and get more involved with the blogosphere in general. As these social media streams begin to flow through the site, Scania really will have achieved a social media newsroom. And they should be rightly applauded for taking their time and doing it right.
It got me wondering if maybe all those other 'multimedia' sites will one day evolve into true social media hubs where customers, employees and all kinds of influencers have conversations and share information, bringing benefits to everyone involved. But I think maybe not. I get the impression that Scania are a long way ahead of the game. Thanks for putting me right on this Erica and may other B2B marketers follow your lead.
2 Comments
Caspian
Good point JB, and one I had just about over-looked in something I am working on when ClientX said “Yeah, we love YouTube, let's have some of that on our site too”. It is so easy to jump on the band-wagon! I owe you one.
John Bottom
Glad it was useful, Caspian. Using YouTube as something to start a conversation, encouraging comments which will drive it to a wider audience (with whom you then interact), and you have something approaching a social media strategy. Without the interaction, it's just pretty pictures.
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