It's Time for B2B Firms to Be More Like Publishers—An Interview with Paul Gillin

RainToday.com's Podcast: Marketing & Selling Professional Services

Not long ago, a business could publish a blog or put up a Facebook page and they could easily attract potential buyers. Those days are gone. Now social media networks are so crowded that you have to do something distinctive to set yourself apart and get prospects to take notice. And that something is creating high-quality content that people can find easily and want to read.

"Marketers have to begin to think of themselves as professional publishers and to adopt some of the disciplines of professional publishing, such as having editorial calendars and professional editors to make sure content is easily consumed by the audience and is compelling and well search optimized," says Paul Gillin, co-author of Social Marketing to the Business Customer.

It isn't enough to have a few staff people writing a blog entry every few days, Gillin adds. You have to have high-quality blog entries.

"You have to say something important, and you have to say it succinctly. And you have to have a strategy for packaging it that makes it something people will want to find and will read," he says.

Listen as Gillin discusses how B2B businesses are benefitting from this approach, as well as:

• The number one social media platform for B2B service professionals
• The role of Quora as a social marketing tool
• How to motivate staff to be involved in social media and content-producing efforts
• Short- and long-term benefits professionals can see from social media marketing