Last fall I had the opportunity to attend PR News’ Digital PR Summit in New York City. The one-day seminar was filled with information on social media platforms, how to include social media in B2B PR campaigns and how to maintain and build relationships with editors through social media.

As a busy B2B PR professional who needs to know about the latest trends in social media, I feel this one-day conference was well worth the investment.

The conference covered what I would consider the “majors” in social media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+. In addition, we delved into Tumblr and Foursquare. Although I’ve heard of these social media outlets, I wasn’t sure of their usefulness for my clients. After attending the summit, I am now a huge fan of Tumblr, in particular, and I think there is a great opportunity for my B2B clients to spread messages via personal blog accounts.

One message that was consistent throughout the day was that people prefer to follow other people on social media instead of a brand corporate logo because it provides an identity to the person behind the posting. A tool like Tumblr allows individuals within a company to spread their message in a microblog without the 140 character limit. It provides the opportunity for self-expression and rich branding and is an efficient way to distribute content. In addition, followers have the ability to comment and reblog, providing a great way to measure effectiveness.

As I think about my clients, Tumblr would be a great way for them to communicate with their B2B audience. Whether it is internal audiences, like employees or shareholders, or external ones, like a trade editor or a customer, they could spread messages and insight via Tumblr. In addition, the ability to personalize the page by adding color and graphics will help them show their personality as well. And let’s face it, in today’s business world knowing someone and liking them goes a long way, instead of communicating with a logo.