Thanks to all of you who joined today’s live broadcast of the first webinar based on our Business Social Media Benchmarking research, “B2B Social Media: Facts, Fictions and Focus Areas for 2010″.

For those who weren’t able to make it, here’s a link to the recorded version of this B2B social media webinar.

The webinar draws on insights from our recent research on the social media activities of over 3,000 business people and companies to separate fact from fiction in this rapidly evolving space. Social media channels DO offer companies a significant opportunity to engage business buyers online, generate leads, drive revenue and engage/retain customers. However, our business social media benchmarking research and experience over the past year (see our B2B social media case study for more info) suggest B2B marketers are:

• Having trouble identifying the social media channels that offer the greatest opportunity for building their traffic, leads and revenue
• Pursuing too many social media initiatives at one time to be successful
• Confused about where the boundaries for the ’80/20 rule’ lie for various social media initiatives

To help B2B marketers get on track with their social media plans for 2010 and beyond, the webinar covered key findings about the top social media sites and resources people use for business, including important differences across industries, and the business-related information they’re seeking through these channels.

Our free B2B Social Media Benchmarking Study report is good background reading and provides far more benchmarking stats than we could possibly cover in the webinar.

Needless to say, this is a lot to cover in a 60 minute webinar. For all of you who asked questions I wasn’t able to cover during the webinar itself, look for me to address in upcoming blog posts.

Once again, here’s a link to the B2B Social Media: Facts, Fictions & Focus Areas for 2010 webinar.

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Work for an search marketing agency managing campaigns for B2B clients?

If so, check out the B2B search marketing agency resources section of the Business.com Ad Center. There you’ll find a variety of useful resources to help deliver the best B2B search marketing ROI to your clients including:

• Our monthly B2B search marketing agency newsletter with the latest advanced B2B PPC and SEO tips plus detailed overviews of all new Business.com product releases and site enhancements.
• Special Business.com offers for agencies
• Up-to-date resources to help you pitch Business.com PPC, directory inclusion and/or banner advertising to your clients.
• Business.com advertising FAQs for agencies to help you easily answer client questions about Business.com advertising, and more…

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Oil and water. Mars and Venus. Search and branding.

Not long ago (or still?), brand marketing and search marketing were viewed as two polar opposites in the marketing mix. Many diehard pros specializing in one or the other of these areas still struggle to understand find value in, or even imagine, using search marketing to build or reinforce a brand message.

“The 10 blue links of the search results page are simply not a worthwhile medium for building brands,” say the brand marketers.

“Who cares about building brand awareness and preference when we’re driving conversions!” say the search marketers.

We address this debate for B2B brand marketing and B2B search marketing pros in *NEW* Business.com whitepaper “Building B2B Brands through Search Marketing“.

Here’s a quick summary:

The purpose of this whitepaper is to provide a straightforward overview of how to build your business-to-business (B2B) brand through search marketing, and to provide several best practice tips for finding and leveraging brand-building opportunities in the context of search marketing. Specifically, we cover the three fundamental ways paid search and SEO connect with B2B brand campaigns:

1. Brand initiatives provide key inputs for search marketing campaigns

2. Search marketing delivers an impactful, branded experience

3. Search marketing impressions, CTR and conversion rates are affected by brand campaigns

And, in the process, review the mounting research supporting the impact of a strong B2B brand presence in search results on search marketing ROI.

We don’t get into the “which is better” debate that branding pros and search marketers so often fall into. As you review the research it quickly becomes apparent that this debate is a waste of time - brand marketer and search marketers absolutely need each other to deliver the best possible ROI for their companies.

Visit http://www.business.com/info/b2b-online-marketing/building-b2b-brands today to get your copy of “Building B2B Brands through Search Marketing”.

And once you’ve had a chance to read through it, we’d love to hear your impressions below.

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