Social media is moving up the demographic ladder, zeroing in on the sweet spot for B2B marketers: the 35-49 age group. A report from Nielsen confirms it. That new friend of yours on Facebook may control a multi-million dollar IT budget.

The demographic change is driving a new wave of newbies inside corporations to look at social media. Since this second wave is likely to be more influential inside the company and with customers than the first, twentysomething-based one was, it’s worth looking at how B2B marketers should position themselves both internally with employees and externally with customers.

Let’s look at internal first. There are some important prerequisites that need to be in place if marketing is going to be able to serve as a source of information about social media to employees—and be thought of as a competent manager of the organization’s social media presence. I see two big ones:

1. Know what your employees are doing with social media. Responsibility for what employees are saying about the company will eventually make its way to marketing, so marketing needs to find out what employees are doing with social media. Think of yourself as a venture capitalist rather than a cop (though every company should have a social media policy). Seeing how social media happens organically among employees can give you important insight into potential new thought leaders, as well as a handy test population for gauging which tools employees are most comfortable with and, therefore, which ones might be best for integrating into conversations with customers.
2. Create permission. Having a set of social media guidelines is important, but those guidelines should be simple and shouldn’t patronize employees with a lot of detail. The policy should demonstrate trust in employees rather than trying to CYA. Rather than saying “Don’t lie,” say, “We ask that employees conduct themselves as they would in any business situation—with honesty, integrity, discretion, and respect for their audience.” That’s about all you need. Companies should also ask employees to post a disclaimer on their blogs and offer suggested language for it, but should not punish those that fail to do it.

   However, permission isn’t just about setting rules. It’s also important to demonstrate permission through action. The CEO should blog to employees, and a few top thought leaders and subject matter experts should start their own personal blogs to set the tone and demonstrate that the corporate culture is ready to give up the iron grip of control over the conversation both internally and with customers. A few showcase social media examples from important individuals inside the organization will energize others and help set the tone for dialog that matches with the culture of the organization. Customers buy from you because of who you are as an organization as well as the products and services you offer. So the tone of your social media communications should match your organizational personality.

   You also need to get permission from IT. Again, this isn’t meant in the literal sense—there are plenty of ways to get around IT with social media. But social media is not very secure. So involve IT in the planning of a social media strategy. Don’t let IT dictate what employees can and can’t do with social media (they may want to ban it altogether), but collaborate with the IT leader on policy and keep him or her informed about what employees are doing. Remember that many of these tools start within the IT community, so IT can be a great source of advice and a bellwether for new trends.

What have I left out? How do you “manage” social media at your organization?