B2B Social Media Success Stories "Abound"

Business to business social media issues are hitting the mainstream press. In his article, Tom Hespos makes a few interesting points that I wanted to highlight:

The sense of community loyalty is often stronger when we look at niche audiences congregating online, as members of smaller communities tend to need to turn to one another to address focused challenges.

This speaks to the concern that your prospect base isn't big enough to foster a community effect. In truth, it's the character of your prospects, not the size of the market that determines community growth. For example, I've spent some time testing audio content for my Powered prospect base--primarily consumer marketers. You'd think that marketers would be in to all forms of communication if only to investigate new ways to reach their markets. Not so. Marketers don't listen to online audio.

It's only natural that B2B marketers gravitate toward engaging their audience via an online community, keeping the people most important to them involved in relevant discussions.

It's expensive to communicate with business people. I hadn't considered this before. Stickiness is important. Conversations are critical. Tom also gives a plug to Cymfony for monitoring your extended community. Please let me know of any other B2B social media stories that you come across.