For B2B marketers, it's quickly becoming a top priority: how to make money from social media. While B2B marketers boost their investments in social channels, it's a real bear to determine the ROI. Several speakers at the 2011 International BMA Conference discussed the challenge of justifying spending on social media. Part of the problem, said Paul Dunay, CMO of Networked Insights, is that marketers are looking for a magic bullet for social media.

The BMA earlier this month debuted a major redesign of the BMA eStore. The website, which was designed by Total Promotions Inc., features BMA-minted apparel as well as items for the office and meetings. The store will be offering new items frequently.

By Tom Stein

This year, a new print magazine (imagine that!) titled Chief Content Officer was launched by Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI). In May, my friend Bob Evans, one of the foremost technology journalists in the world, was hired by SAP to be its chief content officer. Across the business marketing landscape, the ascendance of content to its role as a primary component in the mix is manifest. And with this ascendance, the rush to rule the content marketing roost is on. 

BMA NorCal Chapter Branding Roundtable: Focus Into Action: How to Create and Sustain Momentum Around Your Brand
09/07/2011 | Palo Alto, CA  

BMA Chicago Chapter Marketing Innovators Luncheon Seminar: Bob Pearson, Chief Technology and Media Officer, WCG
09/08/2011 | Chicago, IL 

BMA Colorado Chapter 2011 Golf Tournament
09/08/2011 | Castle Pines North, CO 

BMA Carolinas Chapter Event: Social Crush
09/13 - 9/14/2011 | Charlotte, NC  

SEE ALL UPCOMING EVENTS> 

Haas: Bake social media into the existing marketing pie 

For Tom Haas, CMO of Siemens, the explosion in social media has caused a major shift in how the electronics and engineering giant approaches its customers and prospects. Haas, who is a member of the BMA National Board, emphasized that social media should not be treated as a standalone concept. BMA Buzz spoke with Haas about some of the changes in B2B marketing wrought by the rise of social networking, building brand-specific content that lives outside of a company's main website and the benefit of a "Web value report."  

Are B2B marketers starting to channel their inner Scorsese? Nearly two-thirds (64%) of senior sales and marketing professionals said they plan to increase spending on online video this year, compared with 2010, per GlobalSpec's Trends in Industrial Marketing 2011: How Manufacturers are Marketing Today. Video and social media topped the list among the marketing channels that will see the biggest increase in spending this year, compared with 2010. The survey, which took the pulse of 384 B2B executives, also found that a majority of respondents (57%) plans to use social media tools this year and that 50% are allocating more of their budgets to online programs.

Rise Above the Email Chatter >

Hashtag abuse: Stuffing, surfing and other 'malatweetisms' >

Grammar Wars: Brands are Judged by Their Words >

Stronger relationships make for better customers >

'Real time' key in capturing leads > 

Director of Marketing and Communications - National Environmental Balancing Bureau

NEBB members perform testing, adjusting and balancing of heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems, commission and retro-commission building systems; execute sound and vibration testing; and certify laboratory fume hoods and biological cleanrooms.

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