In the early days of the Internet, there was tremendous enthusiasm (“irrational exuberance” was a term bandied about) for the potential of the new medium. It was a cure-all for everything that ailed us in B2B marketing, or so it seemed.

With the dot-com bust a decade ago, we learned some hard lessons. But out of that process came a better, fuller understanding of what the Internet could do. Specifically, we learned the hard way that the phrase, “if you build it, he will come,” did not apply to your company’s web site.

Similarly, as we develop our B2B analytics capabilities and apply these tools to social media, we are learning some important lessons about what B2B social media can do. And what they can’t. 

While we will continue to learn more about social media as they apply to B2B marketing communications, here are some quick observations.

One important disclaimer here: while we often talk about the social media as if the term was a single, generic entity, it isn’t. Both literally and figuratively, the term “social media” is a plural (of the singular term “medium”), encompassing blogs and wikis, communities and forums, as well as Facebook and Twitter. And those alternatives offer up a wide variety of different types of content. But more on that later.

1. B2B Social Media are NOT awareness building media.

Our original instinct at Godfrey was not to think of social media as awareness mechanisms, but rather more of a cultivation tool.

But, for a few months there, we got momentarily caught up in the hype, lusting after the millions of Twitterati and the hundreds of millions of Facebook fans, like everyone else. And just having a Facebook page would get us in front of all those people. Unfortunately, that’s not how the process works.

It all started with the analytics. We were thinking, quite rightly, that social media would be a means to attract people to a site. But that process doesn’t simply occur at random. Before people look for you on Facebook or follow your tweets on Twitter, they generally have to know who you are. And have signed up to follow or “friend” you. So we’re not really building awareness, as much as we’re providing a way for people who know you to find out more and become more closely affiliated with you

And while some visitors may come to your page as a result of a recommendation (or ”like”) from someone they trust or admire, that’s not really an exception in that the recommender him- or herself is the awareness-creation medium (not the social media site). And without some direct intervention on your part to build an audience’s awareness of first your brand and second your social media site, no one will find you.

That’s why more and more marketers are putting FB and Twitter “follow us” logos on “real” awareness-building mechanisms like ads, TV spots, etc.

2. B2B Social Media are so-so interaction media.

There is no question that some interaction can and does occur on a social media site. But there are limitations, preventing the full-scale access to product specifications, literature and specifiers that B2B buyers generally need.

The only way a user will get that kind of information and depth is to go to your main site where they’ll find the data and information they need. So social media are more interactive than a brochure . . . but maybe not as informative.

3. B2B Social Media are killer engagement media.

While social media are not that great at generating awareness, they may well revolutionize the process of creating a lead-nurturing process that enables marketing contacts to self-qualify, self-serve and self-educate. Until they are ready for direct sales intervention.

But, not surprisingly, it all comes down to content. Engagement is pretty empty if you don’t have anything to say. Or more specifically, to offer. Success online is all about having something valuable to contribute.

Without content, there will be no attraction, no interaction and no engagement. If you don’t have information they want or need, the game is over.