When you peruse the headlines of the day, it’s likely that you read about at least one B2C company that’s gone viral with a creative social media marketing campaign. Do you recall reading about the wild social media success of Starbucks’ colorful (if not sickeningly sweet) Unicorn Frappuccino? IHOP’s sparking conversation and outrage with its fake name change to IHOb (a move that boosted its Word of Mouth Score in the week after the announcement)? But what about B2B social media marketing
While some B2C organizations create a stir with social media marketing, many B2B companies struggle to successfully use social media to get their clients’ attention. They might think their industry is uninteresting to a social media audience or they’ve been so focused on traditional methods of marketing that they haven’t considered social media at all.
Even if your industry doesn’t have the visual pop of the fashion industry or the celebrity power of the music industry, there are plenty of ways you can use social media to create campaigns that will catch attention, spark conversation, and draw in leads.
4 Top Tips for B2B Social Media Marketing
1. Consider Your Audience
Developing a B2B social media marketing campaign is not about being cutesy or controversial; its purpose is boosting your business. Over the years, studies have found that social media guides key decision makers. For example, research from International Data Corporation revealed that 84 percent of C-level executives use social media to support their purchase decisions.
When kicking off or evolving your social media presence, don’t think about the message you’d like to send to your audience. Instead, think about what they’d like to see and hear. Consider the kind of content they’d enjoy reading, watching, and sharing.
2. Create a Social Media Persona
Once you have your key audience and their interests firmly in mind, it’s time to craft a social media persona. You’ll have to decide how edgy your social media branding will be – it will depend on your industry -- but remember that this is a chance to be a bit humorous and show the world your company’s fun side.
As you work on perfecting your B2B social media face, use it as an opportunity to humanize your company. Don’t simply broadcast content — take the time to monitor your brand on social media and have conversations with your followers.
3. Craft Meaningful Content
You’ve already considered your audience prior to creating a brand persona and kicking off your campaign. Keep that audience in mind when crafting your B2B social media content. From Facebook to LinkedIn posts, buyers will come across your content when they’re searching for products and services to help them solve specific problems, so offer interesting, thoughtful, helpful posts that point to solutions to their challenges.
Every B2B social media marketing post has to do more than sell, so develop content that includes photos and stories created by employees — and even your clients. This will further your goal of putting a human face on your company.
4. Be Consistent
The key to B2B social media marketing — and all social media marketing, for that matter — is consistency. First, make sure you stick to a schedule. If you don’t post and update your accounts on a regular basis, you’ll notice your audience engagement begin to drop off.
Next, be sure to maintain the same persona and tone throughout all posts on each platform. You certainly have leeway between platforms —the type of information and the approach you take on LinkedIn may not have the same appeal to your Twitter followers — but you don’t want to take such a dramatically different approach to your content that your audience gets confusing messages about your brand.
Finally, it sounds obvious, but to ensure that your social media marketing operates according to plan, put someone in charge of your social media strategy. Whether it’s an employee that handles other marketing programs or a dedicated social media manager, he or she will be dedicated to consistency and keeping clients — and potential clients — coming back for more.
Want to become a B2B social media marketing master? We can help. Contact us today
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