Recently I sat down with a client for what seemed like an endless debate about an effective and forward thinking digital marketing strategy for their company. I was also educating them on industry trends and the benefits of social media.

Surprisingly, they were skeptical or resistant to every suggestion I put on the table. My suggestions, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and adding Sticky Content and Social Features to their website, were all shot down as ineffective marketing strategies that didn’t apply to their B2B focused company/industry.

Hmmmm….I spent hours trying to figure out “was it something I said?” or didn’t say for that matter. But then quickly realized it was nothing more than two very distant worlds colliding. As an online and social media marketer, my job is to develop effective marketing strategies that are going to help drive business for my clients. However, I suddenly realized that when a client is still working, operating, thinking (but not partying) like it’s the 1999 when savvy direct mail pieces were considered “cutting edge” marketing materials….. Houston, we have a problem.

It’s the same story that a lot of marketers are telling. Our B2B Clients think social media marketing is irrelevant or inapplicable to their business. If you are part of a B2B company, then you may want to take another look at Social Media, and here’s why…

Your competitors are already there.

Have you checked out any of your competitors’ websites lately? Chances are that if you have, you’ll see Blogs, Opportunities to follow them on Twitter and Facebook, feeds to photo albums on Flickr and Videos on YouTube. Your competition is using every possible avenue and opportunity to reach and engage their target audience (which also happens to be your target audience).

Your target audience is living online already.

Take a look at the latest statistics from Facebook. Inside the numbers you will notice a few very relevant ones indeed. 200 Million Active users, more than 2/3 of the users online are outside of college and the fastest growing demographic is 35+, more than 8 million users become fans of pages every day. Social Media provides a perfect platform for you to engage these users and find out, not only what they want, but what they are saying about your products and services. Because these social platforms offer up the ability to have real time conversation with clients, leads, prospects and enthusiasts, you have an immediate connection to reach millions of people in an entirely new and powerful way.

There are great tools out there. You just have to know which ones to use.

As I network and talk to various CEOs and entrepreneurs, I always hear the same thing. It’s that little “L” word. Yes, you guessed it, LinkedIn. A great site for business focused social networking, but by no means should it be “The only one.” Usually a combination of sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook allow you to hit that sweet spot of connecting and engaging. But that being said, don’t be afraid to layer in other social media platforms, such as photo and video sharing for a real bang of that engagement buck. Keep your content fresh and constantly updated with new updates and before you know it, you’ll be networking your way right smack dab center into the world of social media, where new opportunities await your company.