Social Media has not only revolutionized the marketing paradigm on the B2C side, but also has dramatically changed the marketing engagement methodology on the B2B side. CRM integrated marketing automation platforms are become increasingly popular in the B2B world as revenue drivers and are also becoming the new beating heart of a perpetual “curiosity-to-customer” engagement lifecycle.

But its Twitter that continues to fascinate me as a marketer because it is literally a launching pad for content marketing, PR, thought leadership, etc. and it gives you only 140 characters to make a difference. Walter Chen, Co-Founder at iDoneThis, published a LinkedIn article, “The Dullest, Most Vital Skill You Need to Become a Successful Manager” a little over three months ago and it has garnered over 600,000 views so far. Mr. Chen, who is not a LinkedIn influencer, claims that it is indeed, writing that is the vital skill one needs to be successful and I couldn’t agree more.

In fact, my personal Twitter (@MahaTweeter) profile reads, “MahaTweeter is a means for satisfying my inner writer by offering an original thought every day. I am because I write, I write because I am…” But then long form writing requires a certain skill and tweeting, especially business tweeting, requires something more. You don’t have to be a marketer to do the former, but you most certainly need to be a PR, thought leadership, social media maven all rolled into one to do the latter. It was sort of the idea behind my post from over a year ago, “If the headline doesn’t tick, people won’t click!”

As a marketer, I have previously postulated that tweeting in the B2B world requires a combination of left-and-right brain panache, which was the thinking behind my post of September 20, 2011, “The Art & Science of the B2B Tweet and Strategic Intent!” I went on to elaborate five tweeting factors — Interrupt, Inform, Interact, Investigate and Inquire in my February 19, 2012 post, “Five i-Factors That Can Ensure Every Business Tweet Counts” — that are critical to achieving a tweet’s objective.

In my nearly five years on Twitter, I have tweeted on a variety of subjects from economics, foreign policy, marketing, politics, and spirituality, et al. It has always been a challenge to meet my own five i-factor threshold in 140 characters, especially when hashtags and an embedded link can consume up to 30% of your message in a tweet. No wonder, most B2B organizations don’t want sales guys tweeting – as they are rarely thrifty with their words and hardly ever get to the point in a succinct manner. But I kid, my sales brethren!

In any event, to illustrate this marketing enigma, I went and pulled some of my recent tweets relating to my publishing efforts on LinkedIn to let readers decide how they stack up:

June 13, 2014 – We hold these truths to be self-evident that all searches are created = but some have a right to be forgotten http://linkd.in/1kRkPJz

July 24, 2014 – Content is in the eye of the beholder, but content marketing is in the hands of curator and distributor! #B2B http://linkd.in/1udxkoT

August 12, 2014 – Top 10 Ways for B2B Marketers to Succeed: the ABC and Moneyball Approach–nurture… don’t always be closing! ‪http://linkd.in/1kUPwjg 

August 18, 2014 – Top 10 Checklist for ‪#B2B to Acquire WMD–social media is not only about sharing but also social listening! ‪http://linkd.in/1sJ7Nm3 

November 24, 2014 – A brand by any other name… is not a brand! Your brand is also what people don’t say about you? ‪http://lnkd.in/dh8m7ia 

If readers click through to some of these very insightful articles, I think I might have just made my point. If not, I would have still made a point — some of my messaging in some of my tweets did not resonate with some people. But this is what the inbound marketing enigma is all about — sending the right message to the right person at the right time using the right medium. Maybe, Twitter is not everyone’s thing or maybe I need to keep at it. I haven’t seen the movie, “The Imitation Game” as yet, but if any B2B marketer has cracked the Twitter enigma with a 100% success rating, I’d love to hear from them.

Happy Holidays!