RADIAN6 BLOG — For all that social media is all the talk of the business town these days, the B2B sector seems to be having a tough time making sense of – or seeing the value of – these channels. Are they really useful for the B2B world? All we see is B2C success, are there cases of B2B social media success out there? How do we make social media work for us? We offer a resounding "Yes!" as answer to those first questions, and as for that last one, well, that’s the question we’ll be working to answer for you throughout September. This month we’ll be offering up as many tips, concepts, anecdotes, and examples to help you start connecting the dots between your B2B company and social media. And to support our social-media-for-B2B endeavors, we’ve written up quite the eBook [PDF Link] that faces head-on the argument that states social media only fits the B2C business dynamic...

SOCIAL MEDIA EXPLORER — Rule #1 of Twitter use – be helpful – right? Does that make sense to you? Absolutely. Can you screw up your implementation of Rule #1 and ruin your Twitter presence? Absolutely. By the way, this rule applies to all forms of social media. Let’s look at the idea of sharing in the context of two questions: What to share? How to share? You can automate parts of your social media presence. ReTweet buttons are a simple example: two clicks and you’ve Tweeted a useful link instead of typing it all out. You can even set up automated Tweets, similar to E-Mail autoresponders. Similar examples apply to other social media tools. But here’s the important question: Why automate? There’s two ways to answer this question...

MARKETINGPROFS — In a minor stroke of genius, Best Buy created @Twelpforce, a Twitter-based means to pose tech questions and get answers in real time. Today, Twelpforce is more than 28,000 followers strong. Reviews are so positive, and its execution so impressive, that the agency responsible (Crispin Porter + Bogusky) received the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes Lions this year. Twelpforce's day-to-day operations demonstrate the know-how of Best Buy employees, and their customer-service expertise, right before tweeters' eyes! Here's how Twelpforce gets it right:...

SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER — It’s the Holy Grail of interactive marketing: getting "social media influencers" -- the ones with the voice and the reach, the ones to whom everyone else listens -- to endorse and promote what you’re doing. Recently, my company managed to inspire 60 such influencers to participate in our event, called The Influencer Project, and they even took it upon themselves to help spread the word. People like Social Media Examiner’s own Michael Stelzner, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble, Gary Vaynerchuk, David Meerman Scott, and others all signed on. We were grateful beyond belief. Some of the brightest minds in social media spoke at The Influencer Project. Why’d they come on board? And how’d we do it?...

MYCUSTOMER.COM — An increasing number of businesses are now using social network Twitter to engage with customers. But exactly how? Follow this guide to tweeting success. 1. Don't be cryptic: With only 140 characters at your disposal, it's often tricky to get ideas across, but being clear and concise is crucial in keeping your followers engaged. 2. Give followers a reason to click your link: Include a link in your tweets whenever possible and keep your tweets interesting to encourage click-throughs...