Very interesting interview with Louise White, Incisive Media Group marketing MD at Incisive Media Group, over at The Media Briefing.
What stood out for me is the fact that the use of social media is still in its infancy in the B2B market. Hold that thought.
Also, Louise makes good points about data and the fact that spreadsheets and dashboards on customer usage don't in themselves help you make decisions - it is the intelligence that comes from this data that enables you to know what to act on. So, gaining this insight - by talking to customers - is key to giving the data value.
Now, back to social media. This is the big challenge for B2B publishers - customer insight generally comes from hiring specialist consultancies to go out and talk to customers. But social media tools provide us with the opportunity to talk to customers on an ongoing basis. Can the new tools provide this feedback service?
This will be an interesting area for publishers - as customers get more savvy with social media so publishers have an opportunity to build engagement and start opening up new feedback channels.
What then becomes interesting is how publishers organise themselves to engage with customers - is that a marketing job or a content job or a customer service job?