Welcome back to another edition of B2B Trending Conversations, our end-of-the-week roundup of what’s trending in the B2B social space. We scour Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other platforms to bring you the best of what B2B professionals like you are talking about. This week, we’ll look at how augmented reality is transforming the B2B space, B2B marketing trends, and social selling as an alternative to business travel. There’s a podcast on the challenge of creating company culture in the virtual office and an infographic on finding the right balance when using push notifications. Let’s jump right in!
B2B Augmented Reality
Here’s How #AugmentedReality is Reshaping the #B2B Landscape. https://t.co/kXVDbMMILP #Sales #Marketing #AR #TradeShow #Demo pic.twitter.com/VcVBPeuQMb
— AppReal VR (@apprealvr) March 3, 2017
Augmented reality is transforming B2B by changing how businesses interact with each other, expanding their abilities to connect across multiple channels and supercharging marketing efforts, writes AppReal’s Yariv Levski. This article examines how AR can help your business promote its products or services to other companies, and explores new ways businesses can use this exciting new technology to better engage with customers, vendors and partners.
B2B Marketing Trends
Interesting article by @Sam___Hurley about up and coming B2B marketing trends. #B2B #marketingb2bhttps://t.co/u2oV9eqqip pic.twitter.com/ZFBbB0xvNn
— Madison Marrs (@MadisonMMarrs) March 2, 2017
Digital marketing expert Sam Hurley notes the monumental shift in B2B marketing trends underway, listing six significant trends for 2017 in this widely-shared Sparklane post. Never forget that customer experience is everything — in a world of ever-increasing choices, customers can easily switch brands if they don’t feel satisfied with their experience with yours. Account-based marketing (ABM) will continue to allow more B2B marketers to target only their most promising prospects. There will also be a greater reliance on content marketing and video, and the rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence are positively exciting B2B marketers with their boundless possibilities. Finally, influencer marketing will continue to be all the rage.
B2B Social Selling
⚡️It’s Time To Take Flight With ‘ #SocialSelling ‘ . |#socialmedia #B2B #defstar5 #makeyourownlane #smm
⏩https://t.co/fYpU9pK2Nw @forrester pic.twitter.com/nKdeQTPmFb— Fintech Trading Tech (@BourseetTrading) February 25, 2017
Forrester analyst Caroline Robertson laments the often nightmarish and counter-productive nature of business travel and asks why not rely more upon social selling? “When sellers approach social selling systemically and thoughtfully, it can actually amplify the attributes of great sellers and help them cover more miles by participating visibly in the forums that matter to their clients,” Robertson writes. “And when research shows that B2B sellers who embrace social selling are 72 percent more likely to exceed quotas than their peers who don’t, who can argue with that?”
Company Culture in the Virtual Space (Podcast)
5 Ways to Create the Right #Company #Culture in a Virtual Office Space! #podcast #b2b #biztips https://t.co/r5MFsTRbDB pic.twitter.com/bwUAKlh13P
— FreeeUp (@freeeup) February 17, 2017
How do you create the right company culture when your “office” is in cyberspace? Freeeup CEO Nate Hirsch offers five tips to help you solve the challenges of the virtual office space in this B2B Growth Show podcast. Hiring people who actually fit your culture is the most obvious place to start, but it’s something that’s often overlooked. Making communication a priority at your company could be the difference between its success and failure.
Push Notifications (Infographic)
Check out our #awesome #infographic on the dos & don’ts of web #pushnotifications: https://t.co/tpwp6qqkvs #marketing #B2C #B2B #digital pic.twitter.com/ddzunMu9y3
— Wigzo (@WigzoTech) March 3, 2017
Content marketer Asavari Sharma shares important “dos” and “don’ts” of web push notifications, which are gaining in popularity among retailers seeking to boost sales and customer engagement. Sharma cautions against overdoing push notifications — you can’t just start spamming your potential customers! By focusing on personalized push messages — which increase CTR by 25 percent — over one-size-fits-all missives, empowering your subscribers with timely information and hot deals and by avoiding repetitive or overly frequent messages, you too can maximize the benefits of this increasingly ubiquitous tactic. Preach your expectations, policies and culture from the top down to encourage greater and more efficiently focused teamwork and discourage staff turnover. Be open and honest about assignments and expectations.
That’s all we’ve got for this week. We’ll be back next Saturday with another roundup of all the B2B social buzz that’s fit to share. Be sure to check out our coverage of Revenue Summit 2017, where some of the brightest stars in B2B sales and marketing will shine for two days by the San Francisco Bay. Have a productive week!
