BtoB magazine has created the first annual Social Media Marketing Awards, honoring the b-to-b marketers and agencies for “superior use of social media channels” in seven categories:

• Best use of Facebook
• Best use of Twitter
• Best use of LinkedIn
• Best use of viral video
• Best corporate blog
• Best closed community
• Best social media integrated campaign (across more than one social channel)

Nominations from marketers and agencies are being accepted through Feb. 19. There is a $50 fee per submission. Winners will be announced in the April issue of BtoB. For more information, visit: www.btobonline.com/socialawards.

I was reminded of how fast some of the simple tactics of business-to-business (b2b) public relations are changing when I read a post by Sarah Skerik of PR Newswire.

Skerik makes the point that we now need to create “tweetable” headlines in our releases or pitches that reporters and others can easily tweet. [Email me if you want her post, which requires registration.]

It’s all part of the changing nature of media that feels like it’s moving faster than a speeding bullet. And, yes, we do need to be somehow superhuman to keep up with it all. And, yet, at the same time in our rush to embrace the new, we should not disband what’s old and still working.

Press releases, which have been around for a mere 93 years,  still work. They’re a quick, effective way in the b2b sphere to tell the news. And, with a little updating for a web 2.0 world still work fine, thank you very much. However, you need to do more today than simply writing up a quick announcement. You need to insure your release:

• Is optimized for the engines.  That means having a headline and keywords (typically three is recommended) sprinkled within your release. It means having a short headline that will be visible within the 65 characters Google displays. It means having hyperlinks and a call to action. Your call to action can be a special offer or the opportunity to get a new article or white paper or book chapter. Ideally, you’ll have a landing page connected to your call to action making it easy for someone to get to and easy for you to track your results.
• Has a social media version. We find a good way to do this is to use PitchEngine, which not only lets you quickly create a social media release but lets you propagate your release online via sites like Delicious and Stumble Upon. This makes it easy for others both to find and share your release.
• Have a Twitter and LinkedIn version. For Twitter, we’re talking about having a headline that’s eye-catching and fits within Twitter’s 140-character limit. Skerik makes the point that to stay within the limit it’s also helpful to use a service that shortens your URL or in web lingo “tinies it.” Here are two sites that do just that: tinyurl.com and bit.ly. The headline for this particular post is just 39 characters (counting spaces). And yes, please feel free to Tweet it.  For LinkedIn, it’s helpful to post releases in the “news” section of relevant groups.  There are thousands of groups devoted to b2b topics. To find groups, simply search under the drop down “groups” on the LinkedIn search bar.  Be sure if you link to your release it includes a compelling summary, which LinkedIn will pick up.

At the end of the day, none of this of course matters if you don’t have an interesting, compelling story that will make a difference to your target audience. If you add a new manager, no one but you, the manager’s mother and maybe your local paper cares about. However, if you can tie your new position to an overall growth or expansion story that’s indicative of your success in a down economy, that gives your story a little context and interest. Add to that what you’re doing differently that is making you successful and you have the beginnings of a story that will resonate.

So what are you doing to get the word out about your b2b business? I’d love to hear from you.

You know how everything old is new again. That’s how I felt when I read a recent article in The New York Times vaunting as new the rise of relationships in public relations.

The Times’ article, which ran over 3,000 words, relates how a well-connected Silicon Valley publicist  promotes a new company by “whispering in the ear” of new media elites rather than journalists. It  pronounces the dawn of a new paradigm in public relations that is all about relationship-building, not media relations.

Give me a break.

[For a great counter punch to this nitwit article, please see Richard Edelman’s post and the excellent comments it generated).

The fact is that public relations over its short history has always been about influencing opinion makers.

Edward Bernays who is credited as the founder of public relation as a profession, is said to have “advised public relations professionals to seek out group leaders and other key communicators (opinion leaders), who would be able to pass along ideas to other members of the public.”

That, of course, is relationship building.

In fact, as PR professional Jason Falls has astutely noted, “social media is essentially public relations in the online world. Divide the category up by component — blogs, social networks, microblogging, podcasts/Web TV, wikis/collaborative software — they each ladder in some way to a component of public relations — writing, corporate communications, community relations, media relations, event management.”

Or, as I would put, it the medium has changed but not the message or strategy.

So what does all this mean for BtoB marketers eager to get better known? Should you abandon traditional PR and put all your money towards influencing their influencers? Should all PR be online PR?

Our answer is affirmatively, no.

The fact is that many BtoB companies focus on non-sexy-sounding niches like water-activated tape and marketing mix modeling, And, yes, there are pockets of influencers for these type of companies including packaging and marketing associations. But working with these influencers doesn’t mean “whispering in their ear.” It means speaking before organizations, writing for their publications, doing joint research projects and truly advancing the conversation. As I might add, good PR practitioners have always done.

Ultimately, any PR solution must be be multi-dimensional. We find among our B2B clients that we need a multiple of arrows in our quiver, including a combination of new and old media tactics.

The key to determining how to approach public relations, is to develop a strategy that accounts for getting visibility that will translate into credibility and ultimately sales.

That means going where the audience is.  In the case of BtoB companies, this can be trade publications, business publications, cable and broadcast, blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and even something as old-fashioned sounding as trade shows.

It also means the creation of content, since today anyone can be a publisher. For BtoB companies that means the creation of white papers, newsletters, blogs, videos, though leadership pieces. Really only the imagination is the limit in terms of creating content that someone is going to read, comment on and that at the end of the day will help advance your reputation.

BtoB public relations for most companies is an ongoing process that is a lot more than “whispering in the ear of influencers.” It’s a journey anchored by strategy and moved forward by tactics.

What do you think? I’d love to hear from you.