Here s a first-pass topical outline for the book Social Marketing to the Business Customer, by Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman (John Wiley & Sons, late 2010). This outline attempts to define all the major issues to be addressed in a book targeted at business-to-business marketers. Your thoughts are welcome. Use the comments area to tell us what we’ve missed and where we should devote the most attention. And if there’s anything that shouldn’t be here, let us know that as well

Note: Practical advice will be interleaved with case studies, vignettes and quotes from practitioners. We are very interested in identifying candidates for case studies. If you have a good story to tell or tips to share, contact Paul or Eric at paul{at}gillin{dot}com or eric{at}ericschwartzman[dot]c0m.

Update: This outline was revised and reposted on March 3, 2010. The most recent revision appears below. Earlier revisions have been deleted. Many of the comments refer to items that appeared in earlier versions.

Update: This outline was revised and reposted on Jan. 5, 2010 based on earlier feedback

1. The Changing Rules of B-to-B Marketing

1. Traditional media in decline
2. Rise of the unofficial spokesperson
3. Proliferating channels to customer or, from a marketers point of view, audience fragmentation.
4. The importance of peer-to-peer communications: the impact of markets as conversations.
5. Assessing most effective platforms for B2B social media marketing
6. Contrasting b-to-c and b-to-b audiences
7. Creating a strategic framework for platform assessment.
8. Promoting responsible edge work through corporate social media policies. If there’s no formal policy in place empowering employees to do the edge work, why would they risk their jobs to engage?
   1. Assessing value of end-customer pull vs. business partner push
9. Estimating staffing requirements

1. When social media is and isn’t appropriate
2. Risk/reward matrix
3. Applying social media to the traditional sales cycle
4. Researching audience needs
   1. Listening and engaging
   2. Inviting feedback
   3. Market research
5. Shift from demographic to psychographic profiling
6. Product development
7. Customer/channel relations
8. Peer-to-peer marketing
9. Cost-saving opportunities
10. Applications of crowdsourcing

3. Getting Buy-In and Resources –

1. Explaining value to stakeholders
2. Adopting the mindset
3. Test and revise
4. Overcoming popular objections
   1. Top 10 arguments to make with legal and HR
   2. Convincing the CIO

4. Organizing for Social B-to-B

1. Empowering employees to speak
2. Integrating social media with conventional marketing
3. Re-skilling the organization
4. Marketing department organization
5. Building bridges to other departments

5. Protect Yourself: Creating & Enforcing Social Media Policies

1. Defining “transparency”
2. Coordinating with existing corporate policies
   1. HR code of conduct
   2. IT policies
3. Social media Policies vs. Guidelines
   1. Legal issues to consider
   2. Do you need a policy?
   3. Start fresh or build on existing policies?
   4. Issues to address
      1. Disclosure
      2. Private vs. Business Personae
      3. Privacy and confidentiality
      4. Respectfulness, diplomacy and conflict resolution
      5. Crisis considerations
4. Enforcement and penalties
5. Regulatory considerations
   1. Tweeting through an IPO

6. Lead Generation

1. Building social media into the selling cycle
2. Stages of the funnel
3. Quality vs. quantity leads

7. Getting Starting: Easy Low-Risk Opportunities

1. Identifying high impact applications for quick results
2. Demand pull vs. supply push
3. Choosing tools
4. Analytics and metrics
5. Worksheets
6. Selecting participants
7. Campaign lifecycles
8. Budgeting
9. Allocating resources
10. Beyond the first campaign – next steps

8. Listening to Customers

1. Listening through filters
2. Embracing popular language
3. Dealing with negativity without losing your cool
4. Going “off message” in search of relevant conversations
5. Keyword research primer (contributed by Lee Odden)
6. Keyword validation
7. Quality vs. Quantity tradeoffs
8. Conversions
9. Advanced search
10. Competitive analysis
11. Research alternatives
12. Ratings systems
13. Assembling a rapid response team
14. Policies and procedures
15. Building internal feedback loops

9. A Customer Is Not a Transaction: Deepening Relationships

1. Incorporating social media into customer care and support (Social CRM)
2. 360° listening scenarios
3. Building a listening dashboard
4. Creating customer testimonials and endorsements
5. Integrating social media and customer events
6. Brand ambassador programs

1. Value of communities
2. Branded vs. public communities
3. Public vs. private
4. Where do branded communities make sense?
5. Best practices for encouraging activity
6. Do you need a dedicated community manager?
7. Skills requirements
8. Employee involvement in customer communities
9. Platform selection

1. Features and audiences
2. Organizational versus individual value
3. Using the platforms in combination with each other
4. Behavioral standards and community values

12. A Non-Techie’s Guide to Choosing Platforms: Beginning, Intermediate & Advanced

1. Securing the right infrastructure: Web 2.0, Licensed Software, Open Source and SaaS
2. Matching platform to objective
3. Overview of major platforms
4. Public versus private platforms
5. Selection grid and decision tree
6. Examples of best practices
7. Staff assignments and responsibilities
8. Integrated campaigns
9. Mobility (contributed by Christina Kerley)
10. Risks: Data Portability, Back-up, Support, Service Level Agreements and Attention Siphons

13. Metrics and ROI

1. How practitioners are approaching ROI
2. Strength/weakness analysis of major metrics
3. Working backwards from the goal
4. Revision cycles
5. Suggested ROI methodologies
6. Multiplatform multiplier effect

14. What’s Next for B-to-B Social Media

1. Expanding internal stakeholder involvement
2. 2. Creating branded customer communities
3. 3. Multichannel campaigns
4. 4. Internal/external program integration
5. 5. Creating a social media-aware workforce