Lately I’ve had a lot of conversations with B2B PR pros who are looking to scale up quickly in social media.  It got me wondering: what if you have just five minutes to get your arms wrapped around this thing?  Maybe you’ve been called into a meeting on the topic.  Or maybe you’re so skeptical about it and so pressed for time, that you’re willing to give five minutes and no more?

Game on.

Look, it’s five minutes, so you can’t capture everything. In fact, you have time to learn the essence of the answer to just one question.

Pick your poison:

1. How big is social media?  AKA, Is thing really real? This video covers growth in channels, cultural changes and has big picture comparisons to previous technologies.  I include it in my “101″ social media training sessions. The stats all apply to the general public, but the staggering thing B2B people tend to forget is that B2B people are…well…people.  If they’re comfy reading a blog post on gardening, they’re comfy reading a blog post on their B2B sector.

2. Why are these social media fanatics so…fanatic?  I don’t get this culture. What’s they’re agenda? In 1999 the Cluetrain Manifesto (named for a joke about the “clue train” coming by and no one getting on board) was published. Part political treatise, part customer rant, with equal doses of funny and scary, it’s a cry out from the community at social media’s core.  The book’s essence is its “95 Thesis” which at least explains the motivation behind the scarier facets that come to mind when people get weirded out about social.  Caution:  Some of the talk goes off the rails when it applies to B2B. But if you just keep thinking “conference cocktail party culture” when the authors get raw, you’ll see lots of B2B application. Read the 95 Thesis here.

3. What B2B companies use social media? Does it work? (This is a bonus…two questions that can be proven in one set of links)

• 10 Examples of B2B companies that use Facebook (Often considered the hardest cultural stretch for B2B)
• 5 Examples of multi-social media channel efforts by B2Bs (Creative APPLICATION of social media, not just having channels)
• 10 Examples of B2B Twitter chats (proving both corporate use and community participation)

4. I’ve got a specific situation in an obscure industry that’s very conservative. I need detailed info stat! Ok, it’s most likely the info you need has been posted or created by people involved in social media.  And that crew tends to use certain keywords that can shorten your search time.  And many use SEO techniques to make sure their stuff can be found, so you’re already being helped before you start looking.  The two places you want to look ate Google’s advanced blog search and Slideshare’s advanced search (a site for sharing PowerPoints).  Within those sites, try:

• B2B or b-to-b or business-to-business or BtoB (search engines can sometimes guess you’re looking for variations of a term, but nothing works better than using each of these.  Based on my experience, in the order above.)
• “Best ways”
• “Examples of”
• Social media and “XYZ” company/sector/situation
• “List of”
• “Case studies”
• Tips
• How to
• Introduction
• Resources
• Bootcamp
• Trends
• Easy
• Brief history
• Statistics/Research/Study/Report/White paper
• And because there has been so much frustration with social media, you’ll find some of the most down to earth explanations by prefixing your search term with “what the F*ck is…”

5. What’s difference from social media for B2B versus B2C? Throughout the blogosphere there are a lot of great examples of the differences between B2B and B2C social media. Unfortunately, the work to come up with a standardized definition has just started on Wikipedia.  We’ve got some stuff up there, and in a few days more it’ll get better.  You’re welcome to check in on the progress so far, contribute your thoughts and make the world an easier place for your B2B community.

Have you seen a great “learn it in five minutes” example?  Add it to the comments knowing you’re helping a lot of people out of a bad situation.  Thank you!