In recent weeks, I’ve held several workshops and given a few guest lectures on the general topic of how businesses are using social media to communicate in new ways. I believe that showing actual cases is a great way to help people understand - because it can be difficult enough to explain what del.icio.us is to a newcomer, let alone how it can help their organization. Once I show it, though, there is often a collective”A-ha!”

But then the inevitable question comes up - “All of this is great for Nike or Dell, but what about the rest of us?”

It is a great question. In reality, there are very few global consumer products companies when compared to the number of international business-to-business organizations that could benefit from social media engagement. For companies like Nike or Dell, whose stakeholders are already plugged-in, members of the “golden demographic” and use social media in their social lives, the only risk could be NOT using social media.

But what about the company that makes industrial scales, that makes letter sorting machines or that makes glass facades for the building industry? Are there social media applications for them?

A colleague of mine in the States admitted to me yesterday, “I have given up on the generation that sits in executive management positions today, but the generation that sits just under them really gets it - and so I think, especially in B2B, that we will first see wide use in a few years.”

My answer is that there are great possibilities, and there is today a real chance for B2B companies to gain a competitive advantage in areas like customer service, thought leadership and CSR by using the social media - if they do it right.

There are cases to be found. Oil and gas companies like NorskHydro and Chevron are using social media as is GE in things like their EcoImagination site. Even smaller sites like this one from a welding supply company in Wisconsin have begun to adopt social media.

What is your favorite B2B example? And where are the other good cases?

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