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I have just finished flipping through two books by the late, great Paul Arden, ”It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be” and “Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite“, and it reminded me again why I make it a habit of revisiting these at least once a year.

These books are a must read for anyone - be you a Creative, Suit or on the Client side in Advertising (although there are beneficial insights for anyone in business).

If you haven’t had a chance to read them, grab them and do so. The ideas may seem simple and obvious, but it is amazing how quickly you can forget when you get snowed under in busy periods at work.

In the business world, and especially in the B2B environment, the benefits of Social Media are becoming increasingly apparent to the point that organisations who don’t embrace these technologies stand the chance of being wiped out by smaller and more savvy competitors.

This poses the challenge of convincing the Marketing Department and Upper Management of adopting new “Inbound Marketing” technologies that can essentially fly in the face of traditional practices, and push them outside their comfort zone. This may also be compounded by the very nature of the word they are being asked to adopt - Social Media.

Lets look at the first word:

Social = Fun, relaxed, with friends (time wasting) 
Social = Activities outside of work (not business) 

How many times have you said you don’t have time for social activities because you are too busy working? 

In addition, many organisations block a range of Social Media sites for this very reason - they view them as time wasting or not business activities. I have at least three friends who are not able to access Facebook in their offices. 

What I would suggest is adopting a new term to explain Social Media to CXO roles in order to present the benefits and eliminate the negatives associated with “social”. My own suggestion would be Business Networking Media. 

The analogy is this, think of a Business Networking Event you have attended recently. Now think of this same event not constrained by time, space or location - and with the benefits enhanced. That is the power delivered by Business Networking Media solutions, an effective tool to add to your marketing mix.