We sat in on a Webcast by Netprospex and Tippit, about using social media for B2B marketing. Perhaps the most prominent lesson we’ve learned from Webinars about social media – and this one was no different – is that the best way to virally market your product and ideas is to offer a free Webinar about virally marketing products and ideas.

Gary Halliwell, CEO and co-founder of sales and marketing firm Netprospex announced early on that we could talk to each other via a #netprospex message on Twitter throughout the presentation. By the end of the Webcast there were 140 tweets by attendees, undoubtedly picked up and recirculated among the various attendees’ followers. We tweeted as well. Nice viral marketing idea for presenters, but did it help anyone else?

While we tweet regularly, we wonder if the problem with Twitter is that there are far more people tweeting then there are folks reading and responding to those tweets. We posted two questions about the Webcast to other participants. Both were ignored. And, to be fair, we’re guilty of the very same thing. With thousands of followers, how much can you read of what each or any of them have to say? Twitter’s usefulness, we think, might well depend on applications that help organize its use, such as Tweetdeck and Tweetlater, and/or limiting your followers and those you follow to the number with whom you can comfortably converse.  

The main point driven home in the Webcast is that social networking is about people talking to people, rather than companies talking to companies.  Even if your effort is to market BtoB you still are talking as a person to a person – or should be.

One of the best ideas offered by speaker Scott Albro, who founded business media company Tippit, is that those who use social must transition themselves from the traditional mindset of Always Be Closing (ABC) to the social mindset of Always be Helping (ABH.) Albro’s How-to’s for social marketing put us in mind of Nike and it’s “Just do it” slogan. Among his five steps for implementing BtoB marketing through social networking, participation was number one. No more the “business plan must precede your business action” advice. A social media marketing campaign has to start with listening, and then taking part in conversations. “The plan will come later after you understand what it’s about,” said Albro.

“Your social media content must be remarkable” he said. That’s because social media -much more than traditional media -  suffers greatly from attention scarcity. If what you offer is not remarkable it will get little notice, and your BtoB marketing will fail.

Additional tips were to be authentic and be a regular. “if you’re a vendor, be transparent,” agreed both Halliwell and Albro.

Visit http://www.netprospex.com/resources for the complete Webcast.