It’s getting harder and harder to find real value and new insights from the plethora of webinars on social media these days. Fortunately, time was well spent yesterday, with Sirius Decisions (”a benchmark and advisory firm” for B2B marketers) and their research director Jonathan Block offering up a good overview of social media’s relevance to B2B companies, encouraging at least baby steps if you want to stay in the game. He made some great points — I’ve picked my top three and paraphrased below — and I would add three more big ones to a successful strategy.

Three of Jonathan’s observations:

1. Realize that blogs, social networks, wikis, and communities are not going to directly impact demand creation — so don’t expect them to. However, social media tactics and social networks can make big contributions to awareness, reputation and brand, and word of mouth.

2. It’s not about the technology. Widgets and new platforms are sexy and fun — but being relevant to your audience and driving business are even better. Understand what your customers or other key audience are doing online — gauge their interest in various social media activities so you know how to engage them in a realistic and valuable way — with the right tools. (But he did not say how to do this…)

3. We need to move from web analytics to KPIs (key performance indicators) to make social media strategies and investments measurable and accountable in meaningful ways. (He gave a few examples, e.g., rather than counting pageviews or clicks, see if sales prospects move through the funnel any faster if they are touched via a blog or community or podcast download. More work needed here.) [BTW, Beeline Labs is co-developing an ROI model now with two clients. Ask me about it if you’re interested.]

Janet’s adds:

1. What you talk/write about is as important as where and with whom you do the talking. Corporate speak and bland informational content doesn’t cut it in the real time, conversational world of social media. As we say around here, “to get more interest, be more interesting.” What works is actually what’s most authentic and central to the business: what do you believe about what’s important and where things are going? What have you learned that will help others succeed? Time to morph your messaging machine into one that shares opinions, advice and stories that turn people on not off.

2. Developing social media capabilities needs to be owned at a senior level, and that someone will need to make some changes. (Yes, everyone can “do” it, but it’s too important to exist as a thousand uncoordinated tactical efforts across the company.) One of the aha’s that surfaced in the Beeline Labs/Deloitte/SNCR “Tribalization of Business” research on how businesses are using and learning from online communities is that CMOs themselves should take on the role. After all, if marketing is in the customer creation business, what’s more important than capturing attention, nurturing relationships, and creating customer preference by being more involved where, when and how is most meaningful to them? (And CMOs — get ready to make talent, organizational and process changes to transform your operation from command and control marketing to participation marketing.)

3. Social media is not a new line item or added expense — it’s an amplifier. Because it’s a new mindset and habits as much as anything, “social media” makes everything you’re already doing much more efficient and effective, and renders obsolete a whole host of traditional sales and marketing efforts. In fact, I would venture to say you could scrap at least 30% of last year’s programs, spend less and accomplish much greater results by shifting to more involving and conversational approaches.

Some timely thinking for entering the 2009 planning season — we should all be asking ourselves: What are we willing to start doing and stop doing? What are the best new bets and changes we can make?

You aren’t alone if you’re trying to figure out where to begin when it comes to doing more — or doing at least something — in social media in your organization. At last night’s Social Media Club meet up in Boston, we surfaced some great tips for building support with management, setting up projects for success, and getting used to the realities and joys of non-stop trial and error.

Here are seven ideas for taking the plunge or expanding what you’ve started:

1. Embrace experimentation as a way of life.
By it’s very nature, social media is participation-driven and enabled by technology — which means it’s always changing and the variables are pretty much infinite. Measurement is evolving. You and your executives need to develop an appetite — actually, real enthusiasm — for experimentation. As panelist Michelle Glorie of Kronos put, “Your executives have to understand the need to take action. They have to be willing to try things and see what sticks.” (To mitigate risk and increase the comfort factor, keep reading below.) Mike Volpe of HubSpot had a great analogy for the experimentation mindset: “Think like a VC, with a portfolio of possibilities. Some will hit, but not all.” Spread the risk, learn from everything you do, and keep investing.

2. Start small. Think evolution, not revolution.
You might even be “doing social media” already. Next time you’ve got big news, something as simple as creating a companion podcast/video interview makes your news more engaging and shareable. As a number of PR folks in the room advised, just post it to YouTube, on your website and share the links via email to customers, prospects and bloggers who follow your industry. You’ll see that it doesn’t hurt and nobody dies. So make it a series. See what kind of downloading action you get, and ask for feedback wherever you post it.

3. Monitor what’s going on (and make new insights easy to appreciate)
John Cass (now online community manager at Forrester) shared an example from interviews he’d done with Wendy Harman at the Red Cross. She created daily reports for Red Cross execs on what’s going on online, what people are saying about the Red Cross by using free tools like Twitter, Google alerts, and Flickr. She helped them see the value of this new source of insights and offered advice on specific action the Red Cross could take, building a case for more proactive involvement.

4. Start inside.
Lots of companies launch blogs internally first, often within the corporate intranet. It’s a safe place to experiment, and to surface those with the natural talent and inclination to sustain blog posting. It’s also a great way to get employees used to a new style of communicating, not to mention learning about the organization in a more immediate and less packaged way (assuming blog posts are timely, authentic, and interesting!)

5. Have trust in your people (or get some people you can trust)
The new realities of social media — always on, everyone has a voice, sharing is paramount — bring with it much less control, more immediacy and unpredictability. Which means you and your boss and your team mates have to trust each other to use their best judgment; micromanaging is not an option. If you don’t have that kind of trust, consider making a change. In your team or your choice of employer. (Thanks to Parna Sarkar-Basu of Invention Machine for this point, who credits her great relationship with her boss for their early successes in social media.)

6. Involve the legal team at the beginning (especially if you’re a public company)
It sounds counter-intuitive but the best thing you can do is proactively engage your legal folks. Much better than having them send up red flags when you’re about to launch something. Offer a social media 101 session, show the impact of social media on the business, how other companies are navigating these new waters, and encourage their collaboration on ways to overcome any concerns they may have.

7. Evangelize, and train everyone
If you’re the social media champion, unleash your beliefs and savvy on as many groups across the company as you can. Go to corporate communications and help them see how to shift from message control to two way conversations, talk to your web team about easy ways to inject more participation into the site, create a social media 101 workshop or e-learning event and resources, and work with HR or whomever to get it shared throughout the company. (Evidently Intuit has a great internal training program pioneered by Scott Wilder, group manager of Intuit’s QuickBooks online community. Will try to get more on this.)

You can also do the old fashioned social thing and get yourself and some colleagues to physical events like those hosted by the Social Media Club which has chapters all around the world. When a bunch of smart people who care about the same thing get in a room, something interesting and useful always happens…

What obstacles and ideas for getting over the hump to do more in social media have you thought about?

This is my first post. Why haven’t I gotten on the blogging train before now? Maybe because there’s 100 million blogs out there already. Seemed like enough. Or because I’m doing something else. Curious about my own motivations and questions, I have become a student of Why People Blog.

Reason #1: Because it’s fun! Last week AdAge reported on the recent BlogHer and Compass Partners research pronouncing that blogging is now “mainstream” among women. What’s inspiring them?

• 65% do it for fun
• 60% to express themselves
• 40% to connect with others
• 34% blog as a personal diary
• 26% to give advice or educate

The reasons women read blogs provide good advice for marketers seeking to attract them:

1. Make it fun and entertaining (46% read because it’s fun and 26% for entertainment)
2. Provide useful information (41% are seeking information)
3. Make it timely (34% want to stay up to date on specific topics)

And as blogs morph into more participatory communities, we’ll see shifts in motivations, with a rise in giving and getting advice and accomplishing a common purpose.

More to come on Why People Blog and what makes good posts.

PS You know a trend has crested when there’s a book list on it. Check out these 10 books about blogs and blogging from The New York Review of Books.