Benefits and risks of shared platforms for B2B business

Nov 26, 2010 24 Comments by Allen Young

Communication in B2B marketing plays an important role in B2B sphere. B2B marketers recognize the importance of being actively present on such tools to get the real benefit from these platforms. These platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are promising sources of increased traffic and help you to show your presence to the other members. But before you subscribe to any such platform make sure that it is really helpful in its stated objectives and how you can take advantage of it. Let me describe a few properties that must be present in any such platform.

A platform must be capable of describing a particular purpose to its members and it should describe every detail related to its stated purpose with the help of content and images. For example, if you want to join a platform for wholesale promotions then the platform must have all kinds of information related to wholesale activities, current scenario and trends. It must have an easy to understand layout and it must give steady traffic to your site and mark your presence by enhancing your image before other members.

The theme of the platform should be easy to understand for all the members so that they can interact with other professionals by talking about their concerns and matching the upcoming trends. The platform must have an option to make and maintain a personal portfolio regarding your business that must include your websites and contact information so that clients can search and reach you easily. This option increases the traffic for your sites. The portfolio option must be customizable to change the look and feel whenever you want.

The platform must have the option to put forward the queries so that other members can give answers and share their opinions. The members must be allowed to share their links within answers.

When there are so many advantages of a shared platform there are always a few disadvantages also such as most of the times, the portfolio that you generate on any platform has the URL address of the platform rather than that of your own website. Therefore whenever you share any information without giving link of your website you leave the platform’s address over there. The user can not reach you unless he visits your portfolio and finds out your given websites.

The disadvantage of sharing your information on any platform is that any of your competitors can use this description for his advantage. If you plan not to disclose your information regularly, chances are your content won’t be indexed by the search engines.

These are the few advantages and disadvantages related to the shared platforms for B2B business but the advantages are more. Thus I would recommend you to join as many relevant and effective platforms as you can.

B2B Business