Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have had a phenomenal impact on the online marketing world. The way you promote your business online has had to change and adapt to make room for social media. But online marketers have a lot on their plates right now.
With Google algorithms making link building difficult, how can you find time to monitor and manage multiple social media accounts? And how can you build a community around your brand? But even with reservations, your B2B company should be embracing social media marketing.
Here we look at five top tips for building, monitoring, and maintaining an effective B2B social media strategy:
1. Conversation
Social media is all about being social. Even as a B2B business you need to be an active member of your online community. Join in conversations with your followers, or by following certain hashtags. Find out what people in your industry are talking about, and add something of value to the conversation.
It is important to remain professional, but social networking is at its most successful when there is an obvious sense of a 'human' element. Users like to see that social media pages aren't just an automated feed. Creating and joining into these conversations is the easiest, but most effective way to boost your following.
2. Vary Your Content
As a marketer, you may see social media as a way to push out your content and promote your business. However, being purely promotional isn't going to work in your favour at all. You need to share other peoples' work, get conversations going, and talk about 'real' industry issues.
By mixing up the content you put out there, you can appeal to a wider audience and increase your reach. You don't want to alienate your core audience, but you should be looking to offer something to everyone else too.
3. Time Management
With so many sites to choose from, it can be hard manage your time between them effectively. You don't want to neglect all your other jobs, but keeping up an active presence on social media is the key to success.
Social networking dashboards such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are perfect for managing your time. All your accounts can be integrated into one online programme, allowing you to post as and when you need to. These dashboards also allow you to schedule posts, which is a great way to save time.
4. Encourage Engagement
Your past online marketing efforts have already built you a strong customer and reader base. Utilise this by including social sharing buttons on your blog posts. This will let readers 'like' and Tweet your posts without having to copy the URL into their own pages. Similarly, don't be afraid to ask your readers to share posts in your call-to-action.
Something as simple as signing off your Tweets and Facebook posts with a name is another great way to encourage engagement. People will know who they're talking to, and feel like their queries are being dealt with.
5. Goal Driven
Like with any form of marketing, you need to know what your goals are. Are you looking to increase email sign-ups and sales, or do you just want an increase in engagement? Whatever you're looking to do, make sure you have a clear set of goals.
Hootsuite allows you to track the number of times your links have been clicked, which is a great way to see if things are working. If you're social media efforts aren't as successful as you'd like, shift the focus slightly. Like any type of marketing, it is about growing and adapting to your audience and what works.
Social media is still a relatively new marketing approach, and one that is still growing and changing. For B2B marketers, it can be challenging to yield results quickly. However, what is clear is that the value of a social media presence is growing. And you can't afford to be missing out.
Discover more of our insider tips relating to B2B marketing using social media.
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