This afternoon I had the opportunity to attend American Business Media’s (ABM) joint meeting of the Marketing Advisory Counsel, Media Advisory Counsel and Publishers' Committee.

The primary purpose of the meeting was to discuss the changing B2B marketing/marketing communications ecosystem – how are the rapid changes are impacting the roles and approaches of clients, agencies and publishing companies.

Some of the key points of this discussion within this meeting were:

• Many clients, agencies and publishing companies are concerned that the audience following or engaged within their social media channels are not truly qualified decision makers or influencers. The very valid point was made that if campaign objectives and messaging are tightly defined to appeal to the target audience, the campaign will attract the target audience. People who do not fit the scope of the message (unqualified for engagement in that particular campaign) will fall away.

• In social media people are the resource. Social, by definition, involves people and requires appropriate time investment in order to be successful. The perception that social media is “free” is a fallacy given the time investment necessary for success. One committee member submitted that just as media budget hard dollars are allocated strategically to various properties and channels, team members’ time (the currency of social media) should be strategically allocated in the same manner as social media efforts are considered and approached.

• Numerous clients still struggle with legal/corporate policies that are unfriendly to social media and other interactive marketing approaches. However, more and more companies are refining policies that balance the need for corporate legal protection and the relative informality and speed of new media.
  

• During the course of the meeting I was reminded of the usefulness of Net Promoter Scores. We should be strategically thinking about how to arm our influential advocates with handy content and opportunities to share our messaging/content within their networks.

• Most b2b marketers, publishers and agencies do not think enough about the strategic role of marketing communications post sale. It is critical to market and communicate post sale for ongoing relationship building – this is an often overlooked aspect of b2b marketing programs.

It was clear during this meeting and other events I have recently attended that clients, media companies and agencies are all working to find equilibrium within the new "marketing communications order." I suspect that it is a waste of time and energy to try to identify and create the clearly defined roles of days gone by. Relationships and partnerships in today's world are simply more fluid and forces that interrupt the "order" are far more common than order itself.

Rather than trying to neatly define the new ecosystem, a better use of time might be to think about buyer and seller and how the two can best interact with one another, within which mediums for optimal value for all at a given moment in time. For those of us who want to hold onto a portion of the days of yore, this is the area to hold onto and an area that must be held onto.