Recently, we wrote a post about common mistakes B2B companies make on social media. No doubt, social media for B2B can be tricky.
However, since the channel – and B2B adoption of social media – has matured, best practices have emerged
Here are 6 keys for successful B2B social media marketing:
1. Robust content: Content needs to be new and engaging, across different platforms, and in different formats (blog post, video, tweet, photos, etc.). Offer good information about your company. Institute an editorial calendar and ensure your company’s different departments get involved. This will provide flavor and variety. Warning: don’t aimlessly mass-produce content; identify goals, and engage customers accordingly.
2. Mobile: Accessing social media platforms on mobile devices is increasing in popularity. So make sure your B2B company’s website and blog can be used on mobile as well; there’s nothing worse – and no worse advertisement – than sending social media followers and prospective customers to a user-unfriendly digital environment.
3. Audience-specific: Who are you targeting? Analyze network demographics to get the best ROI (return on investment). Know who you want to reach, and which social media networks those people are most active on. And don’t forget to track and monitor the data to see how your target market is engaging with your company.
4. Connectivity: If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times: social media connect us more than ever before. They can link your company and its employees to its customers – former, current and future. Drive engagement by creating a sense of community; have your staff build up their LinkedIn profiles, for instance. How did they get started at the company? What interesting stories do they have to tell? All your employees should be connecting with people in their local areas and specific markets.
5. Blog: We can’t overstate the importance of blogging (with fresh and relevant content, of course). The blog should really be where your B2B company is most active. Your tweets, Facebook page and your LinkedIn profile should all direct your audience to your blog. Know its scope, who the target audience is, and update it regularly in order to create the strongest online presence. Blogging is the foundation of inbound marketing and inbound marketing is a killer channel for most B2B software firms.
6. LinkedIn: As mentioned in point #3 you gotta go where your target market is. However, we’d put a decent chunk of change on the chance that they’re probably on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is like your virtual business card. Find groups in which your market and audience are spending their time, and post and contribute to discussions.
Hope this helps! Good luck.
