Since the beginning of the year, I have been spending time watching, listening and learning all I can about new media marketing. The trend of using Web 2.0 technologies for marketing your product and service is certainly catching on. It’s really easy to get caught up in the buzz surrounding new media marketing. Blogging and podcasting and social networks are being tested and incorporated in all the consumer marketing plans. Getting your customers to spread the word about your product, service or company via reviews and online conversations makes perfect sense.

But what if you are a B2B company? How does all this new media marketing fit into your marketing plan? Or does it right now?

In a Search Engine Land blog post by Jon Miller, What’s Wrong with Social Media for B2B Marketing?, he discusses the challenges the B2B marketer faces in getting visibility over those writing about trendy B2C marketing and the use of social media. He states that “But to B2B marketers, social media is just one tactic in a portfolio of techniques that best practice companies use to generate awareness, drive leads, and nurture relationships.”

If you are a B2B marketing professional, you do need to become familiar with the use of new media in your arsenal of marketing tools, but don’t lose site over those tried and true methods of building awareness and generating demand. PPC advertising and other Internet techniques, lead nurturing, customer case studies, and public relations still matter more than social media techniques.

So add these new media techniques to your marketing plan but not at the expense of traditional programs.

Technorati Tags: social media, b2b marketing