I sometimes pitch exploreB2B as a “Dating Site for Businesses”. On other occasions, I say it is a “Content Marketing Platform”. So today I will bring the two together – with the help of Michael Brenner of SAP who put the connection between content and dating in better words than I ever could:

“… Content is the engine that drives the whole machine. Content is the catalyst, or even the glue that brings people together and binds us there. It is in the stories we tell that allow us to begin relationships that have the potential to deliver real value to both parties.

It may sound like I’m talking about dating, but that is another often-used analogy for social business. Too many companies are out shopping for a spouse and jumping right to the big question of ‘will you marry me?’ and our potential customers are saying ‘slow down. I don’t even know you.’ …”

Michael Brenner, Vice President of Marketing and Content Strategy for SAP

So what is exploreB2B? A content marketing platform or a dating site for businesses? The answer is: both.

Because setting up business connections without substance is next to impossible.

exploreB2B is the place where you can publish your content, build your reputation, show your expertise and find your clients. exploreB2B is the place where you start looking for the business partners you currently need, find the experts you want to work with and connect to the people you need to know to bring your business up to speed with the modern world.

Content marketing is marketing your business with what you know, it is showing your potential customers that you can bring value to their lives – before they sign any contract. On exploreB2B that means writing articles and publishing them. It means showing your expertise, helping your future clients and therefore allowing them to see that you are worth to be their business partner.

Whenever a business works with a consultant to introduce content marketing into their strategy, one of the first measures taken is the introduction of a blog to their marketing efforts. A blog means marketing by articles, but a blog introduces a whole new set of problems for the company. When you first introduce your blog, who will first read your content? How do you integrate your blog into your social media activities (if you are not active on social media, you better start now)? How do you optimize for search traffic? How do you gain followers? How …?

How?

Not so on exploreB2B, because exploreB2B automatically integrates your content into your social media strategy. exploreB2B is social already.

exploreB2B gives you even more:

• Automatically distributes content to subscribers of the content category and keywords by subscriptions – every piece of content on exploreB2B gets read by the people that are interested.
• Allows you to subscribe to the content that you want – and leave out the rest.
• Allows you to reach the status of expert on the platform – in the areas where you possess your expertise.
• Connects you directly to the experts that you need to work with and the companies that you need to solve your problems.
• Allows you to find out who is interested in your content and lets you connect to these people specifically.

That is what content marketing allows you to do. That is what a dating site (for businesses) should allow you to do. That is what exploreB2B can do for you and your business.

Author Bio: Jonathan Gebauer has founded exploreB2B together with his sister Susanna. He studied mathematics in Berlin, Germany and has worked in newly founded companies as well as science. Since the first all German launch of exploreB2B, the siblings have taken the company to an international market and are currently becoming international social media influencers on the topic B2B marketing. The company’s Twitter account @exploreB2B was selected as one of the top 50 B2B marketing influencers on Twitter by Michael Brenner on B2BMarketingInsider.com.

Photo by Don Hankins via Flickr.