The old ways of doing marketing are done and gone. The new world demands that all companies, yes, all companies, have to approach marketing differently but also those of us in the B2B (business to business space) have to reinvent the way we do marketing.

Social media has been here for over twelve years now. Take note those of you who said it was a passing fad. It is not going away anytime soon, so the way we market our companies is changing in ways that many of us are not familiar with.

Marketing managers need to be doing more, and need to be adept and proficient in the ins and outs of true viable, accountable, and effective social media.

They have to know their way around all the platforms from Linkedin to Facebook, to Twitter and Instagram. They have to be able to constantly be putting out a strong company message that not only tells that company’s story, not only describes and defines their brand, but that also engages with their customer and target customer base.

These marketing professionals have to know when and how and most importantly why to get a message out.

They have to create a veritable legion of loyal followers, and they have to develop those followers to become their company’s apostles, proselytizing their story and products and goods to other future customers.

Old marketing managers used to work on analog marketing such as business cards, brochures, and once in a while their web site. The new marketing managers are more interested and focused on direct outreach. Reaching out and touching a customer while getting as personal and relevant as possible.

Customers now want to be part of something. They want to be part of a tribe whether it be for In and Out Burger, or a rock band, or a particular writer or politician. They want to feel as if they belong to a special group. And the true goal of a proper twenty-first century marketer is to make sure they offer them the opportunity to feel that way.

Here are five ways that a great modern marketing professional can help your company:

1. Create your company story. The story has to be human, humane, and credible. It has to be authentic. It has to say something about your company that makes people want to connect with you. It has to be real, no phony stories allowed and it has to be relatable. Most of all this company story has to be the basis of your brand and the cornerstone of all of the rest of your marketing.
2. Helping your company become well-known: The great thing about social media is that it is democratic. Everyone is equal. The social media of a tiny company can compete with the largest companies in the world. Whether the company has two employees or two hundred thousand employees, social media levels the playing field when it comes to their social media presence.
3. Creating a loyal following. Social media allows a company to send out messages, valuable content, tips, and tools, plans  and presentations all for little or no money. The social media tools give you the format to build company loyalty based on the best way to do it: being valuable to your customers. Being valuable is the very best form of advertising. Giving something valuable to someone you want to do business with will elevate your company beyond the very basic elements of Quality, Delivery and Price. Yes, done right a good social media presence will get you out of the price game because it will create a tribe of customers and would be customers who actually want to work with you. People go out of their way to pay more for Apple products or Nike products. Not because the product is better, but because they want to be part of the tribe …or maybe part of the cult?
4. It is easy and economical. With platforms like Zoom you can produce and air a webinar and present it to literally an unlimited number of companies. And you can do it from the comfort of your conference room. And you can use social media tools to get them there! How much would that cost? How much time would it take? And once the webinar is in the can, you can post it on your YouTube channel and on your web site and also push it with other social media tools as well.

But the real challenges to producing a great social media marketing package are two-fold. The first challenge is accepting the fact that this is the right way, actually the only way to market your company in the twenty-first century. And the second challenge is finding the right person to hire as your new marketing manager. But actually, both of these challenges can be overcome with a little bit of ingenuity and creativity and yes of course with social media. Monster.com or Indeed.com anyone?

It’s only common sense