Debate: Social media strategies that work for B2C companies will not work for B2B companies.

For a research project, I'm looking for best practices for B2B social media strategies.

Executive summary: my question is, do you think that the same social media strategies that work for B2C companies (such as giving out incentives, starting cross media campaigns, adopting a "cool" social media identity and so on) would work for B2B companies, given that there is a different nature of the target audiences and their needs and wants?

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Many companies today use social media to generate revenue, to stay in touch with their clients, to provide customer service, to advertise and in general to maintain their image. Some B2C companies have incredible social media campaigns.

Some companies use social media as a platform to get more impressions, by offering incentives to people who will interact with the company via social media.
These methods work for B2C companies, but would they work for B2B companies? The clients of such companies may not be interested in fun/humorous contact with the companies, and may not want to be approached in an interactive way, but rather just read and learn about the companies’ capabilities and qualities.

People who are interested in B2B companies may have completely different needs to be met on social media, and this debate intends to see how these needs and desires should be approached by B2B companies, and whether they can use similar strategies which proved successful by B2C companies.
I'd love to hear your opinions! Many thanks.

 

Whether it's B2B or B2C, it's all about meeting needs. The needs may vary, but meeting those needs is the ultimate goal in both situations. My opinion anyways.

 

B2B companies can also use these strategies which B2C companies practise, also humor is appropriate even in this case.

 

Social good for both B2C and B2B. Its depends on your strategy and target traffic.

 

Hey everyone, thanks so much for the replies!

I agree that social media is useful for both B2C and B2B. But do you think that social media strategies such as the one Zappos (who completely took on the character of its CEO, and is very attentive to the customer via Twitter), for example, employ, will work for B2B's? Or because those have different target audiences, they companies shouldn't be too friendly/casual on social media?

 

My short answer is that many of the same social media strategies that work for B2C will also work for B2B. However, the conversation might be more personal and geared toward consumer reviews and customer satisfaction for B2C social media campaigns. For B2B it might be more professional talks and invitations to collaborate as a team as well as making yourself know and/or asking for client recommendations.