hen B2B considers social media marketing as the method of using social networking sites as an online marketing tool to drive traffic, generate shares and boost brand awareness. It involves leveraging social network sites that share pertinent and interesting content or social media with your network of fans, followers, and connections. It emphasizes originating interesting content to attract attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks.
Social media marketing offers a unique opportunity to fasten with others at minimal cost that helps to build a relationship between companies and buyers and prospects in a manner making a comfortable bond between them.
Terms related to Social Media Marketing
- Social media
It is a term used to describe information that is created as text, image, audio, and video formats that are shared and distributed in the online social network easily.
- Social networks
Online destinations such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn permit people to share social media with their followers, friends, and connections.
- Social Media Marketing
It is a process through which social media is shared on social networks and other websites to nurture prospects’ relationships.
Core Elements of B2B Social Media Marketing
- Liaise, Don’t Vend
Social media is a platform where people connect for real conversation but through the virtual platform. As it is used as human-centric content that is value-led, a marketer should avoid hard sakes pushes. Connect with the ideal audience, and strive to inform, educate or entertain them with your content. Be a smart marketer and offer insightful addressing their pain points and needs. This would build your brand as a hub of information rather than an aggressive sales pitch.
- Hit the Sweet Spot
The audience loves attention and when you flow attractive information in minimal words for them. Your target audience looks for instant research and concise information. Engage your customers with optimized content that they can relate to.
- Be Consistent
Maintain your social accounts with consistent relevant posting highlighting your active behavior among your prospects will lead them to your sales funnel. By doing this you would form a comprehensive network that drives more traffic to your website.
- Be Professionally Informal
For B2B, your profile is your image and as you deal with the other businesses you must frame your image as a dedicated professional this would reflect your attitude and serious commitment to your product or service. Opt for a genuine approach in your content and avoid unnecessary abbreviations.
5 Dos For B2B Social Media Strategy
- Research Your Buyer Persona
Know your ideal customers, what are their needs, their behavior, and how your service or product can work best for them? In this, you must know about the dynamic behavior of customers and which platform they tend to use and work on that.
- Optimize your Profiles
Social media sites are like brand embassy where you need to represent your brand. Optimize your profile including the company’s logo, related graphics, and dimensions correct for each platform. Use targeted keywords in our posts and don’t forget to add backlinks to your post.
- Build Reach
According to Kissmetrics, “ Reach is a measure of potential audience size”. Remember you don’t have an audience limited to your follower lists, but your followers’ followers can be your prospects. Connect with your followers’ connections. Build your reach and treat every possible person as your lead. Share interesting, helpful content at least 80% on social media to get better notice.
- Content Customization as per Social Media Platform
Present your content as per the platform context. For example, on Twitter, your content should be less than 140 characters and relevant hashtags must be used for better engagement. Use graphics pictures as they get 50% higher click-through rates. The same goes with another platform, there are specific word limits and you must connect accordingly.
- Analyze to Refine
Monitor your campaigns on social media with some basic metrics such as –
No. of visitors, highest lead generated platform, how many leads turn to the customers, etc. Having these records is a must so that you can refine your strategy if it’s not as per the expectations.
How to Get Started?
To reach your potential customers there are three steps that you must follow-
- Join the community-
Identify your networks and websites that are related to your brand services and join the community through this you would get an understanding of the lay of the land. Set your profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and other social sites to show your existence in the market.
- Listen to the conversation-
Learn things that are being posted on the social media platforms by the experts and what are people searching for. Visit various sites, and know the trend and how people react to them.
- Participate and Create
After following the above mention steps, you are ready to show your existence to the customers and pitch your services through your content. Find the topics that are getting more attention, start participating in the discussion and share your opinions and create your valuable content with facts and figures.
