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A New Paradigm—No Longer B2B or B2C, But B2E

                “The omnipresence of the Internet in everyday life has been a prime game changing phenomenon for new product launches, and has created a new paradigm for marketers—the arrival of business-to-everyone, or B2E. In the United States, 74.7 percent of the population has Internet access; that’s over 304 million people. Overall, the Internet is the medium with which users spend the most time (32.7 hours/week), according to IT market intelligence giant International Data Corporation (IDC). This is equivalent to almost half of the total time spent each week using all media (70.6 hours), almost twice the time spent watching television (16.4 hours), and eight times more than reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours). 

            "When literally anyone around the world can visit your Web site, you are no longer aiming your messages at only your carefully targeted business to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) customers. Instead, you are talking to everyone—B2E. This may have broader implications for those in the B2B market since B2C companies are more accustomed to thinking of virtually anyone as a potential customer. In the more tightly controlled B2B arena—particularly in the business service sector— companies usually talk to a carefully selected group of target customers and prospects. Now anyone, including your competition, can visit your Web site and see your products, pricing, and case studies, and learn how you are positioning your wares. No one cares whether you characterize your product, service or company as B2C or B2B; all they want is information available 24/7 brought to them by Google, Yahoo, Bing or other search engines that provide rapid search access.”
 
Read more about the emergence of B2E on page 10 of The NEW Launch Plan: 152 Tips, Tactics and Trends from the Most Memorable New Products. If you would like help planning your next launch, contact us at launch@schneiderpr.com or on Twitter @SchneiderPR

Building Credibility with Blogs

There really aren’t many signs pointing to the declining popularity of blogs. Each day it seems the reach of blogs actually continues to grow and expand in different areas and industries. Many companies and corporations are turning to blogs with more frequency as a means to raise their internet presence while increasing the interaction with target audiences.

A blog can also be a great forum to help build credibility for an organization by highlighting an executive as an industry expert. By leveraging resident expertise on a particular topic that is germane to their industry, a company can take a leadership position in starting the dialogue, engaging their audiences and in the end, building credibility for the company about a specific topic.

It is not uncommon to see a CEO blogging about the next big industry trend. One of my clients, David Smith, president and CEO of Recap Advisors, a Boston-based affordable housing consultancy, has been blogging about affordable housing issues for several years. His in-depth coverage of complex concepts has brought him a level of credibility that few people enjoy in the affordable housing space.

If your considering launching a corporate blog-- great! Just remember, have a strategy and a policy before you start banging away on the keyboard. Keep in mind that that there can be serious ramifications of what you say, especially regarding sensitive corporate information.

To help guide you through blog planning take a look at Northeastern University & Backbone Media’s Blogging Success Study.