It exists!  Eureka!  Or so you would think given all the new predicative software, new and more powerful reach vehicles, the explosion of social marketing ($5 Billion IPO for Facebook?!), retail GPS, instant coupons, online shipping, you name it.  It’s never been easier to be in business!

I bring this up to point out the obvious.  It’s harder than ever to make a buck.  Competitors are not only more abundant, they’re bigger/faster/cheaper.  Target audiences are more dispersed than ever before.  Their ability to multi-task limits their attention span to that of a gnat.  While providers of these whiz-bang digital tools may be striking it rich, that’s not necessarily the case for the marketers that use them.

But is it working?  Yup.  Marketers are pulling back on traditional advertising and bumping up digital.  Way up.  Successful consumer brands apply one core digital strategy — target loyalists and demographics just like them, and then draw them to a place (the blog) where they can play, interact, chat and share.  The more they happily interact with the brand and fellow enthusiasts, the more they consume and spread the gospel.  Coca-Cola is doing this and has created the #1 Facebook site in terms of ‘likes.’

What about B2B?

B2B is not necessarily fun.  B2B customers and partners are not seeking fun.  Rather, they seek strategic, insight, relevance.  There is no massive school of happy, interactive customer fish ‘liking’ all over the corporate website and blog.  Rather, there are a few large tarpon, sharks and whales circling the edges, learning and studying the opportunities that may (or may not) exist.  In most cases, you don’t even know they’re there.

To get them to bite, to take part, to raise their hand, you must be far more strategic with the interactivity you provide.  There’s nothing frivolous about B2B, meaning your content must be consistent with that reality.  While the website remains a company’s access point to its products and services, your blog showcases the brains and intellect that went into them.

Whiz-bang digital tools are great.  Use them to drive traffic to you and your blog.  For B2B, just make sure the content and interactivity you provide sparks their intellectual and professional curiosity.  Videos of Charlie biting fingers will not create ‘likes’ to your brand.  Smart, relevant content will.  Do that and they’ll like you with something far more valuable – their checkbook.