I just finished reading a great blog by Laura Ramos of Forrester entitled The Social Technographics Of B2B Buyers (http://b2bmarketingpost.com/2009/02/23/the-social-technographics-of-b2b-buyers/#comment-37).

It caused me to start thinking about what Laura had to say and think about the dynamics of why Social Marketing is starting to take off at such a rapid pace.  The following is based on my response to Laura’s posting.

We are seeing in Social Marketing a reflection in the online world of the way the offline world used to work.  If you wanted to meet Stanford sports fans to watch a college basketball game, you would go to a sports bar near the Stanford campus, not Berkeley. 

What we are seeing in the market is driven by the same business forces we used to see, closing more revenue, more quickly.  This desire in today’s world of instant expectations means we need to find those people who are ready to buy and buy today.  When we can find a qualified buyer with budget, we close quickly and if we can keep new prospects flowing we close more often, ultimately driving more revenue. 

This means marketing has to put itself in the place where the ready buyer is at this moment.  That means finding which places these people are in and going there.  Like the Stanford example, there will be many sports bars to go to watch a game, so you start with the largest one.  Then you find there are some people who want to watch a game but they like a certain food, or a quiet place.  You then expand the marketing reach to go to these places and spread your message. 

As marketers we need to find where the people that are ready to buy are congregating and go there not wait for them to find us.  We don’t have the time to deliver the demand generation activities of the past, we need revenue and we need it now.  The best way to deliver this is to find a well-qualified prospect who is ready to buy.  Find out where they are discovering information about the problem they face, add value to their discovery and lead them toward your solution.