With a huge increase in social networking and online communities, marketing and PR strategies have to adapt to word-of-mouth spreading faster and more furiously than ever. A recent survey by Wildfire PR discovered that social networking, online communities and search engines have become the main source of information for IT decision makers.

Talk

Offering both an opportunity and a challenge talking online allows businesses to take advantage of listening and responding to the conversation. What is surprising is the fact that this kind of marketing is as prevalent in the B2B world as it is in B2C. It seems that especially across technology brands the barriers between B2B and B2C marketing are slowly breaking down.

With 76% of IT decision makers using online news services to find out the latest trends, the potential for businesses to talk to a wider market is huge.

Deliver

Since social media sites and online conversations first crept in to the mainstream we’ve all been scrabbling to be heard. In today’s market we need to be delivering valuable content to our networks to ensure the conversation continues to flow. Through talking and listening to customers brands are developing a greater understanding of their consumers needs. Through the collation of this information content is becoming focused, personalised and valuable.

Succeed

Understanding your customers is the first step to having a valuable conversation. Your content and conversations are the initial, continuing and a future link to potential buyers. Through talking and delivering the right content, to the right people, at the right time brands can build a community of loyal and interested followers ready to act as the most powerful spokespeople you could have.

No matter how big the PR budget, ignoring online conversation could see you getting left out altogether. So what’s the solution? Talk more online, but make sure you listen too. Deliver more to your customers to keep them talking about you too, they could become your best salespeople.