Crowd Source but don't follow the Crowd Blindly

With the advent of crowd sourcing both solutions and referrals for relevant solutions, many b2b marketers have found an excellent tool for uncovering new product catergories, trends and market preferences.  This developing open innovation and collaboration explosion has been discussed at length by much more learned individuals than myself.  What seems to have been missed by many experts, at least in my research is a clear need for defining outcomes against realistically achieveable capacities. With the rush to understand the crowd and meet their increasing segmented needs a disconnect between the online and offline organisational goals has occured.
Most notably, the apple iphone 4 was discussed openly and many key shortcomings where highlighted.  While most will agree that Apple is regarded as a thought leader in the computing and smart phone markets, their abilities to meet open ended requests from consumers has been a major challenge.
Considering more classical technical businesses that have well established lines of products, adoption curves and regulations are sometimes to the extreme side of conservative, there can be a real danger.  The danger arises in raising consumer expectations via open source consultation then failure to address the realized need through product innovation.  In short one can't over promise and under deliver.
From my limited perspective its highly useful to crowd source well defined fixes to pressing technical issues or to bolster R&D efforts with such open contest services such as the one offered by innocentive (http://www.innocentive.com/).  Just keep clear of radical engagement which won't be possible to forefill at least in the short run.  In conclusion manage your feedback and go for sustainable crowd source engagement.

Do local Seasons matter in a Global marketplace?

Here in Canada and the U.S., the summer holiday season is fast approaching.  Traditionally, many core b2b markets experience a lull in sales as final decisions on some pending orders are shelved, till key decision makers return from their annual family holidays.  This trend is also played out in Australia, South Africa and Brasil during their summer holiday season around Christmas.
Unlike many retail or b2c markets where seasons play a critical role in driving demand for products, the trend globally, has been to shift focus from lull areas to more active regions in order to fill sales pipelines.  While this stragem has merit their is still the underlying need to think locally to be a world class marketing organisation.  The many multinational US/ China companies for example have operations or facilities in Africa, and South America.  The direct needs of which may take place during the lull at headquarters but the busy periods in their regions.  As such a more balanced seasonally focused approach is warranted, one in which the need for senior executive input from head office is garnered  when possible allowing the operational group in the Southern Hemisphere to take action, order your products/services when they need them.  Done well the global seasonless approach will work. Done poorly it can spell long delays due to seasonal lulls. 

What tools are right for Industrial b2b markets?

As in so many other blogs I have read recently, and in my own capacity as Marketing Manager for a leading ground support equipment manufacture, we are faced with a problem of choice.  Recognising the need to engage, inform and learn from our customers, dealers and marketplace we b2b marketing professionals are being hard pressed to do the social media, thing.  Whether its Facebook, Twitter, My Space, Linkden, blog, You tube, or any other media platform, we investigate there appears to be inherent risks of precieved loss of brand control, the dangers of public rants and general issues of sustainability.
   The biggest challenge is deciding which tools will deliver on your goals/objectives and are the preferred choice of your target markets.
Many companies are reluctant to use Facebook as a venue opting for Linkden due to it focus on business networks and high number of Decision makers.  Personally, the decision to Facebook or not to Facebook is more complex.  Facebook has a strong brand awareness and unlike Linkden social contacts could generate multilevel connections b2b across organisations in a way leader to leader my not.  A great example of this is Southwestern's page which also incourages suppliers to connect.  The involvement of juniour, middle and senior contact engage can only lead to more robust business outcomes.
Again the power of Twitter has in many business circles been misunderstood.  The primary fear being that certain employees would under moments of pressure cause viral rants about the brand.  The truth is email, blogging and even facebook could be said to habour this risk.  The key issue should be clear, shared policies around media use similar to general work internet access that clarify acceptable and unacceptable twitter activity.
In conclusion the use of social media as a direct marketing engagement, learning and branding building tool can't be overstated.  What is needed though is a clear strategies, policies and commitment to add value to users and the wider readership.  This value will only arise from thought leadership and a willingness to experiment with the new social media tools to find what will work most effectively for your b2b markets.