Read on for John's formula for success with social media. “So, how do we get started with social media?” Respondents also indicated that they avoid direct contact with vendors over social media. ” Following are three tips on how to impact purchasing decisions through social media. Use social media to amplify impact. Once you’ve created relevant, engaging content, use social media to amplify impact. Content should help, not sell. Take the business software industry for example. MORE >>

Last Wednesday I posted about the cool social media experiment being staged by John Bottom of Base One at the 2010 IDM B2B Marketing conference in London. In case you missed it and don't want to click back, the gist of this experiment goes like this: John and his team have created a content marketing piece called "Threats & Opportunities: the Future of Social Media as viewed by the UK's most Senior Marketers" and are attempting to generate 1,000 downloads before the end of the day. Well, today is the big day. " Good luck, John. Hint, hint.) MORE >>

Business-to-business (B2B) companies are starting to embrace social media to a greater extent these days. According to a report by Forrester , roughly 81 percent of B2B companies reported that they used social media in 2011. The increased adoption of social media among B2B companies indicates that companies are finding more value out of ramping up their social presence online. One industry that’s been relatively slow to adopt social media, however, is manufacturing. Use LinkedIn to Help Fill the Sales Funnel. MORE >>

I had the great privilege last week, at the inaugural DemandCon event, to share the stage with Kristie Wells , Founder and President Social Media Club, Chris Kovac , Director of Social Influence Nicholson Kovac and Mike O’Neil , The LinkedIn Rockstar for a panel discussion on Social Media. Comment on industry posts, analyst posts, LinkedIn Discussions and you can gently mention a similar or related post on your own blog. Simply adding it to your email signature and LinkedIn profile will not be enough to drive traffic. MORE >>

“Don’t create social media driftwood.&# – Virginia Miracle, Head of Digital Media Strategy – Ogilvy PR. At least once a month since I have talked my ambitious and new Twitter zealot client out of a jumping in with both feet to an overly ambitious Social Media strategy. It is hard to talk reason into some of these folks who have had their eyes opened to the viral power of Social Media. You can create a LinkedIn Group in less than 5 minutes. Does your small B2B organization have a Social Media success story? MORE >>