Social media is a marketing tactic used by 75% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers, according to the latest Sagefrog B2B Marketing Mix Report. And why not? It’s a great tactic for achieving their top marketing objectives:
- Increase sales leads
- Convert leads to customers
- Increase brand awareness
- Produce thought leadership
And we’ll add one more:
- Attract qualified employees (using our secrets of successful social media recruiting)
Social media shines at helping B2B marketers achieve all these goals. In fact, 33% of respondents listed social media as their top source of qualified sales leads.
So what characteristics make B2B social media compelling enough to get results?
1. It’s Strategic
Before you establish a social media presence or share one more post, review your larger marketing objectives (ideally found in your strategic marketing plan). Now, determine how social media can help you achieve them. If, for example, one of your marketing goals is to generate leads, you may want to focus your efforts on increasing followers and website click-throughs.
2. It’s Relevant
As with the rest of your marketing efforts, consider your audience before developing a post. Share information they will find so useful, educational, entertaining, amusing, thought-provoking, and/or compelling that they’ll click through to your website or connect with you to continue the conversation.
3. It’s Integrated
Effective B2B social media is one piece of an integrated marketing program, with all tactics working together to ensure the right message is being delivered to the right audience. A content calendar can help ensure you coordinate your social media messaging with other marketing tactics such as e-newsletters and digital ad campaigns. A content calendar also helps you create a rhythm to your posts and just plain makes your job easier, so you’re not scrambling to come up with ideas and images at the last minute.
4. It’s Sociable
As in real life, no one wants to listen to people who talk only about themselves or are always trying to sell something. Make your posts sociable: share engaging content you’ve found from other sources, ask questions, connect with other accounts, and engage in conversations.
5. It’s Measurable
At Revel, we’re big fans of measurable performance. Decide what to measure based on your goals. (If you want to increase leads, you might want to measure new followers among other metrics.) All the major social media platforms—LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—provide the data you’ll need to measure engagement. To view activity from all platforms in one report, use a tool such as HubSpot’s social media analytics to keep all the data together and track your progress over time.
Use what you learn to hone your social media and overall marketing strategy, and make adjustments to your content calendar accordingly.
Get Results with Revel
Revel provides integrated, results-oriented marketing programs to B2B marketers in west Michigan and beyond. Increase leads and sales, build your brand and attract qualified employees with a strategic B2B social media management from Revel. Send us an email or give us a call at (231) 727-9778 to learn more.
