In today's dynamic world with changing demands of the businesses, every business owner requires additional tool to reach out to its clients over an online platform. This is just an initial thought of what can be done apart from traditional platforms like Facebook, Youtube etc

1. Three Ideas Beyond Facebook For B2B Social Media Communication
All businesses want to create or manage their reputation, and online
media or “digital marketing” plays an important role in achieving this
objective. According to a report by E&Y on social media, top social media
platforms used by businesses in India, today, are Facebook, Twitter,
Youtube, Linkedin and blogs. However, most B2B brand owners feel that
these platforms are not suitable for them. Here are a few alternatives
beyond the Usual Social Media Suspects for B2B businesses.
1. Thought Leadership Through Online Communities
What makes the CEO of a B2B firm excited is the sight of a live, healthy
discussion about the brand. He envisages a platform where an online
community can talk about its brand news, thought leadership, customer
acquisition/retention, lead generation/management and create positive
word of mouth. Long gone are the days where creating brand awareness
used to be the priority. Although online platforms like Facebook and
Youtube do the job of creating positive brand awareness, let us agree
that they incline more towards the individual, personal or consumer end
of the spectrum. Today, everything is about effective use of content and
creating a knowledge pool that can be used and shared by many. We
came across few online communities, if you know about more do share it with us.
2. Document Discovery via Slideshare and Scribd
While traditional popular social media has been explored to the T, there
are several emerging avenues to facilitate this endeavour. For instance,
platforms like Slideshare and Scribd with almost 60+ mn visitors/day and
75+ mn visitors/day respectively are changing the face of online
marketing. Professionals from various industries are always in search of
relevant content and this gives an opportunity to the brand to create a
knowledge pool wherein they can highlight their strength, and thus
automatically create positive word of mouth. It also provides a facility
werein user can embed the document within their website and you can also do the same. Brand can also tag their
document in different ways – technology, branding, corporate practice etc, increasing the chance of being found. We are
planning to share our marketing collaterals on these platforms, what do you think about privacy issues?
3. Build Loyalty Through Private Communities
Another interesting platform which is on rise is Private Communities. These
communities are strictly invite only and are used by brands to discuss about their
B2B brand propositions. These are also used by different brands within their
organizations to promote brand culture and news. For instance, Dell Idea Storm –
used the private community comprising of its distributors to drive tremendous
business value. Are you a part of one of these communities?

2. While there are many tools available today, but in our view these seem to have the most promise. Would love to hear
some case studies (both success and challenges) in these domains.
By
Vibhor Singhal,
Sr Strategy Manager,
Integrated Corporate Practice,
DY Works