How successful are you at B2B social media marketing?
Is your B2B content lacking?
Content marketing is no longer the shiny new object. Those who have caught on are no longer asking “should we do this,” but rather “how do we really dig in and get results?” One of the most convincing pieces of evidence of this maturation?
This year saw an 18% year-over-year increase in respondents who say they are focused on using content marketing to build their audience (one or more subscriber bases).
And that’s what differentiates content marketing from other forms of marketing—its intent is to offer valuable information so people want to hear from your business … so they subscribe to your content because they are interested in it.
YOUR CUSTOMERS
A smart part of any marketing strategy is developing buyer personas. You’ll use them to inform all of your marketing efforts, including social media.
Imagine your ideal customers. What are their basic demographics (age, gender, salary, location)? Now, find social networks that match those demographics.
Some networks have a distinct gender preference. Women strongly favor Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, but there are twice as many men on Reddit.
As for age, seniors (people 70 and older) are the fastest-growing demographic on social media, and there are even dedicated networks for them, including Stitch for those age 50 and above. Seniors show a strong preference for YouTube, too, with over half of Baby Boomers and seniors watching online video.
On the other end of the spectrum, Snapchat, Instagram, and Reddit all have much younger viewers: 90% of Instagrammers and 86% of Snapchatters are under age 35, and 64% of Redditors are under age 30.
YOUR COMPETITION
No matter how unique your business is, you’ll always have competition.
Fortunately, having competition isn’t all that bad: If you pay attention to what the competition is doing, you’ll glean insights into what works and what doesn’t. Have you ever seen something flop… and then decided you could make it better? That may have been what motivated you to start your business in the first place!
For your B2B social media strategy, look at your competition’s social accounts. Focus only on the companies doing well and those that you admire. The ones that aren’t successful aren’t worth copying and could even lead you in the wrong direction (they’ll be the ones over-indexing on Reddit and Snapchat even though they work exclusively with adults age 45+).
Take note of which platforms your competitors use and what kind of content tends to encourage engagement for them. Consider how you can apply that information to your brand.
Does your organization use content marketing?
Content marketing is defined as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” B2B Content Marketing Trends.
How B2B Marketers Assess Their Organization’s Content Marketing Maturity Level
How is content marketing structured within your organization?
What content marketing activities does your organization outsource?
Factors Contributing to B2B Marketers’ Increased Content Marketing Success
Producing more higher quality content increased the B2B business success rates year over year.
It’s also important to remain flexible in today’s fast paced business world. Be clear though about where you are going, but be willing to change and adapt.
B2B Social Media Marketing tactics used to succeed.
CONTENT CREATION & DISTRIBUTION
Which types of content does your organization use for content marketing purposes?
TOP THREE MOST EFFECTIVE
It’s clear that some companies are better at marketing certain types of content then others. It would be useful in the study to dive deeper into WHY?
Which formats does your organization use to distribute content for content marketing purposes?
What I find interesting in a world of social media, that email is not dead, and is thriving.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A lot of B2Bs stink at social media. But in today’s social media-saturated environment, B2Bs can’t afford to stink.
For some reason, B2B companies have lagged behind B2Cs in both the adoption of social media and using it effectively.
A successful social media strategy can have enormous benefits for your company in terms of popularity, brand awareness and audience growth.
- Spend time crafting your social media strategy and plan your operational activity to deliver that strategy.
- Spend time crafting great content that compliments your goals and objectives.
- Be very specific about how to measure the business objectives set, so value can be attributed to the work.
- Listen carefully and monitor the conversations around your brand and competitors before you engage.
- Do not get sidetracked by the vanity of accumulating fans or followers.
- Be clear about the social media channels which best ‘fit’ your audience – what they already do in those channels and the behaviours, attitudes and relationships you are trying to develop.
- Accept that not all social media channels are right for your business.
For the best chance of success, you need to be able to commit time and some serious planning to your strategy. Producing quality content that engages your customers is key, and sometimes it takes tweaking along the way to find out what resonates with your customers.
Resource: Content Marketing Institute
About Blair
Blair Evan Ball is a Social Media Coach and founder of Prepare1, a company that works with businesses, individuals and non-profits. He is a former executive with a Fortune 50 company, and his national division did $1Billion+ in sales annually.
Blair has written three e-books: Facebook for Business Made Easy, Facebook Pages for Business Made Easy, and WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy.
Blair also educates, trains entrepreneurs and business professionals how to amplify their brand, increase revenues, and raise more funds.
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