Recently I heard that BBC journalists have been told to use Social Media or "go and do something else" and hearing the criticism Peter Horrocks has received as a result, I began to ask how this approach might work if adopted at a B2B sales level.

We know that social media can be a vital tool in search marketing with forums, message boards and social networks providing a great platform for brand evangelists, link builders and advertisers to encourage customers to buy their service or product.

The BBC seems to be approaching online social interaction from two sides. One being to collate information about breaking news, the other is in the actual syndication process, leveraging journalists' personal followings as well as BBC followers to maximise the audience.

Taking this approach into a B2B environment could be a proposition fraught with resistance from employees not familiar with the various social mediums, along with those that will not buy-in to the benefits. I believe Peter Horrocks - BBC World Service director was of the same opinion, hence the "shape-up or ship-out"-esque statement.

As a member of the search marketing team at Base One Group, I am a part of what I consider a utopian marketing environment where everybody is pro-active in promoting the brand.

Imagine if you will, the experts within your company spending time building up a presence on the net, monitoring industry news and trends, then providing commentary and opinion utilising the various social networks on offer. Imagine producing a company whitepaper or blog post that can be shared, tweeted and syndicated to a captive audience through not only your company channels but also your staff's channels. Imagine each customer facing department regularly producing posts for a company blog, engaging in forums and message boards all carrying links back to your company website.

The end result, your company becomes known in the industry, you're the company that other companies and competitors want to be, but above all else, when your audience require your product or service who are they going to call? Your competitors? Why would they bother, your company and your staff are now people they know and trust.

The stumbling block is where employee resistance is met. Is it possible or ethical to push them out of their comfort zones and into the spotlight in order to further company achievement?

Have you encouraged your staff to "Chip in" with your marketing efforts? If so what was their response like? 

Opinion seems to be divided on blogging. Some marketers see it as a fading influence, yesterday's technology that is being fast eclipsed in importance by newer social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter etc. After all, blogging has been around for years - there must be something better by now?

But others recognise that a blog is still a great marketing tool if used correctly. It gives a brand a voice that connects personally with customers. It is versatile and cheap to implement. It has great SEO impact and can be used to create brand preference as well as driving traffic by giving people another reason to come to your site.

But, as always, if you don't have the right content you are doomed. Blogging may be the right strategy, but you do you have the content? Do you have the people to produce it? Do you have time to produce it?

These were question facing CWJobs, the leading IT recruitment specialist, when we started talking to them about heir social media strategy 18 months ago. Together we found a solution that has more than met their objectives - read all about it here:

B2B_social_media_case_study_CWJobs.pdf.