THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO B2B SOCIAL MEDIA FOR 2017

Transcription

1 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO B2B SOCIAL MEDIA FOR 2017 Page 1

2 CONTENTS 6 1. The six most important reasons to use social media for B2B 4 2. B2B LinkedIn 6 LinkedIn Language 7 How to use LinkedIn for B2B 8 3. B2B Twitter 9 Twitter Language 10 How to use Twitter for B2B B2B Facebook 12 Facebook Language 13 How to use Facebook for B2B B2B Google+ 15 Google+ Language 16 How to use Google+ for B2B B2B Instagram B2B Video How to structure a social media campaign Social Media: Your takeaway points 27 Page 2

3 THE UNAVOIDABLE TRUTH ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA Social media has exploded in the last ten years and if you re not taking advantage of the benefits it has to offer, then you really are missing out big time. As a business, if you re not already crazy in love with social media, you should at least learn to like it. Here s why: Social media brings fresh, creative air into your marketing strategy You can reach thousands of potential customers in new and exciting ways Social media allows you to listen to your audience s conversations Sharing great content can provide a personal touch to help you stand out from the crowd. 7 86% B2B companies, on average, use up to seven social media platforms 86% employ a dedicated social media individual or agency LinkedIn is the no.1 most popular B2B social media platform (91%) Twitter is no. 2 (85%) Facebook sits at no. 3 (81%) Page 3

4 CHAPTER 1 The six most important reasons to use social media for B2B Page 4

5 ONLINE EXPOSURE It s not rocket science; the more presence your business has online, the easier it is for your customers to find and engage with you. BUILD NEXT GENERATION RELATIONSHIPS We all know relationships can become stale. Social media is about creating excitement and finding new and relevant ways to bridge the gap between you and your customers. 23% GROW YOUR CUSTOMER BASE Great content acts as an irresistible pull in attracting more customers and allows you to reach thousands of potential customers in new and exciting ways. FLEXIBILITY TO CHANGE Tune in to what your customers are saying about you. Posting online gives them the opportunity to offer positive and negative feedback. 20% OFF FAST TRACK OFFERS AND PROMOTIONS Social media is the perfect way to fast track offers and promotions whilst tailoring them in more interesting ways even allowing you to respond to real time trending events. STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD Social media gives your company a voice that enables you to interact with your followers in meaningful and imaginative ways. Page 5

6 CHAPTER 2 B2B LinkedIn Page 6

7 B2B LINKEDIN In 2007, there were 15 million users on LinkedIn; now there are 467 million! Both companies and individuals create profiles which include descriptions of their particular expertise and details of their skills and services. LinkedIn opens the door to valuable new opportunities such as connecting with potential business partners, future employers and employees, whilst generating important new business leads and much more. LINKEDIN LANGUAGE Invitation An invitation is an electronic invite to LinkedIn or a specific group or event on the social media platform. Group admins or users can invite new members and the invitation is sent to your address as a notification. InMail InMail allows you to contact any user of LinkedIn, whilst ensuring the privacy of the recipient. Connected users can message each other once logged in, whether you use the free or paid for version. 1st degree connections On LinkedIn, every user you re connected with is a 1st degree connection. You can also view 2nd degree connections. These are people who are connected to your associates and you can invite them to connect with you. Recommendation Recommendations are used to refer a person or business based on their expertise, skill or service provided. A recommendation is effectively a thumb s up to verify the individual s expertise and reassure other potential customers. Status message Your status message is seen by all your LinkedIn connections and can include information such as what you re working on, job advertisements or even a promotion. Page 7

8 HOW TO USE LINKEDIN FOR B2B When it comes to B2B businesses and social media, LinkedIn is an ideal start. Studies show for lead generation, LinkedIn is 277% more successful than Facebook and Twitter. B2B marketers are in agreement too. If you want to take LinkedIn by the scruff of the neck this year, make sure to follow our tips outlined below. UPDATE YOUR COMPANY PAGE Once you ve created your LinkedIn profile, it s important to keep it well maintained so contacts are informed and stay interested. Be consistent and keep your brand identity fresh and relevant. SHARE NEW CONTENT LinkedIn members are always hungry for new content on their homepage: satisfy their need and provide them with it. This new content can be created for your website s blog - all you need to do is publish the link online. Of course, make sure you tailor content to the interests of your connections - and you ll start to get engagement. CONNECT WITH THE DECISION MAKERS With LinkedIn you can easily filter prospective connections based on their job title, which is clearly visible on the user s profile. Research so far shows that connecting with decision makers on LinkedIn results in 65% of businesses consistently generating sales through this social media platform. JOIN DISCUSSION GROUPS It s all well and good filling your company s page up with useful information and promotions, but if you re not being seen by the masses, you won t be successful. It s easy enough to do this simply by joining industry related discussion groups and becoming a visible presence online. Page 8

9 CHAPTER 3 B2B Twitter Page 9

10 B2B TWITTER In brief, Twitter is a social media platform where you can engage with potential customers and fellow business professionals by communicating online. Anything can be shared, including news, information, images, videos or opinions, with the only stipulation being you re limited to 140 characters per tweet. Most Twitter profiles are public and users tend to follow profiles they share something in common with, or are interested in. TWITTER LANGUAGE Tweet A tweet is the message you send out from your account and will appear on the homepage of all your followers. Hashtag (#) The all-important hashtag refers to keywords and phrases, which can be searched on Twitter. Use industry relevant hashtags, which refer to the topics you are posting about. Retweet If this were an , it would be called forwarding. Retweet the tweets of others to share useful information on your profile. Trending topics If a topic is trending, it s deemed popular in that moment of time. Trending topics are continually updated and usually reflect newsworthy stories. sign On Twitter, sign usually precedes a username and will link directly to that user s account. #FF Follow Friday, or #FF, is when a hashtag is used to recommend some great profiles to follow. Page 10

11 HOW TO USE TWITTER FOR B2B 74% of B2B companies are actively using Twitter to promote their business, but only 40% are getting more customers through this platform. So what are the others doing wrong? DON T JUST PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS Build up an active following by offering useful information for your potential customers, whilst only plugging your company on occasion. The more you send out advertisement-based tweets, the likelier you are to be unfollowed. LEARN HOW TO GET FOLLOWERS Source the key influencers in your industry and follow them and their followers. Those you follow are likely to follow you in return. Join in conversations and try to use industry keywords with the hashtag (#) to ensure your tweets are seen. ENGAGE REGULARLY Scheduling tweeting and incorporating it into your every day working routine will ensure you maintain a consistent presence online. Don t start off with a flurry of tweets and then ignore Twitter for days on end. DON T LEAVE IT TO THE TEA BOY Don t pass off the responsibility to every work experience kid who comes into your office. Twitter is about having a voice and communicating with your audience. You know your company and the industry, so use your experience to become a social media kingpin. Page 11

12 CHAPTER 4 B2B Facebook Page 12

13 B2B FACEBOOK Facebook is by far the most popular global social media platform, launched famously by Mark Zuckerberg from his Harvard dormitory in It is available in 37 languages and users can create a personalised profile and share messages, pictures and videos directly with their friends online. Facebook tends to have a more personal touch than Twitter and many users set privacy controls on their profile to limit access to just their Facebook friends. FACEBOOK LANGUAGE Likes Facebook likes are essentially a user positively engaging with something you ve posted. This could be a status, picture or even a link to your website. Status This is probably your most important tool on Facebook; your audience can see everything you post, which then appears on their homepage (news feed). Think carefully whenever updating your status. Tagging You can tag friends on Facebook in pictures or status updates, so they ll receive a notification and it ll appear on their news feed (depending on their privacy settings). News Feed For everyone logging into Facebook, this is what will be seen first - think of it as a website homepage. The news feed is a collection of the latest statuses and photos from friends and liked pages. Share Sharing content allows you to offer more to friends and followers. You can share status updates, pictures and even videos. Create shareable content and you ll reach a larger audience. Page 13

14 HOW TO USE FACEBOOK FOR B2B There are over one billion active users on Facebook, which means there is a fantastic opportunity to connect with your target market. Here s our top four tips to help you get started: SHARE ENGAGING AND USEFUL CONTENT The more content you provide your target audience with, the better chance you ll have of catapulting yourself to becoming an industry influencer. Any type of content can be shared, including facts, pictures and videos - just make sure everything is on topic and on brand. BUILD YOUR FAN BASE The best Facebook businesses are able to grow their fan base by offering a sneak peak of exclusive content, before asking the user to like the page to see more. This is known as fan-gating and can easily be set-up from your page s settings. GET AS MUCH INFORMATION AS YOU CAN Social media is, after all, a platform to connect with more customers. So, at some point you ll want to drive them to your website. Linking to blog posts is one way to do this and you could also open up competitions, whereby you capture the user s address. You can use this at a later date when creating an campaign. COMPLEMENT EXISTING STRATEGIES Facebook is an excellent way of engaging with your customers, but don t just use this as your only social media tool. There are many other ways to interact with your audience and Facebook should just be one part of your overall marketing strategy. Combine Facebook with blog articles, s, ebooks and presentations to reach a larger audience. Page 14

15 CHAPTER 5 B2B Google+ Page 15

16 B2B GOOGLE+ Google+ isn t like other social media channels. Not only can businesses use it to build their online presence, but it also offers the advantage of maximising visibility on Google search results. This means your website will appear higher on search results and, in turn, increase visitors and page views. GOOGLE+ LANGUAGE Circles Circles are a targeted content sharing feature to help maintain a niche following. It gives you control over who you share content with and how you consume it yourself. Influencers Influencers are people you have added to a selected Circle. The more you interact with them, the better chance you have of capturing their attention. Communities Communities are discussion groups where you can listen to what others are saying and join in conversations. Hangouts Hangouts allow a user to host and record a video conference with up to ten people. You can connect with others at any time, in any place! Page 16

17 HOW TO USE GOOGLE+ FOR B2B DEMONSTRATE YOUR EXPERTISE Take part in community discussions by leaving informative comments which prompt responses from others. TARGET A SEGMENTED AUDIENCE Categorise your contacts based on factors like your relationship with them, their interests and what you want to share with them. IMPROVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE As Google+ is owned by Google, your chances of receiving highly targeted visitors to your website via organic search results will increase. ENGAGE WITH INFLUENCERS React to a piece of theirs you find interesting, and you will begin to build a valuable relationship. CONNECT IN NEW WAYS Why not host an informative Q&A hangout? You can record the hangout and post it online, resulting in great content to publish across your other platforms! REACH NEW CUSTOMERS Create communities to reach different audiences and collaborate with others on topics your company is passionate about. Page 17

18 CHAPTER 6 B2B Instagram Page 18

19 B2B INSTAGRAM With over 600 million users, Instagram is a huge social platform which has the potential for your brand to reach a wide audience. It differs to other social media websites as you are unable to post links; leaving your images to do all the talking. TELL YOUR STORY The key to Instagram marketing is to not think of it as marketing! Use Instagram to tell your story, as part of your wider marketing strategy. Instagram is a great way to demonstrate your brand s personality and values, rather than just promote your products. ESTABLISH CONNECTIONS Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram is used less for driving web traffic and more for building and maintaining brand awareness. It s a great platform for grabbing the attention of prospective clients in their leisure time. SHOW A LESS SERIOUS SIDE TO YOUR BRAND Give people an insight into your company culture by offering a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on. Demonstrating that you ve got nothing to hide is a way of humanising your brand. B2C brands thrive on being relatable through social media - yours should too! IMPROVE EMPLOYER BRANDING If you re in the process of recruiting, social media can be a great way to help attract the right applicants. If you follow our previous tip and build up a feed of behind the scenes type posts, applicants will gain an insight into your company culture and the right people will apply to work for you. Like Instagram, Pinterest is another image-led social network. Its most popular posts are related to food and drink, DIY and events. If you would like more information on how suitable Pinterest is for your brand, get in touch and we can talk you through it! Page 19

20 CHAPTER 7 B2B Video Page 20

21 B2B VIDEO Live video is becoming more and more popular in the B2B space. In 2016, 80% of consumers said they would rather watch a brand s live video than read a blog and 82% prefer live video to other social posts. Here s the basics: YOUTUBE YouTube began as an entertainment platform and is now essentially a search engine. Videos on YouTube are accessible 24/7, making them a great source of information for potential customers. FACEBOOK LIVE Facebook s Live Video feature allows users to stream video content live to their audience. Viewers can like, share and leave comments on the video, resulting in a two-way conversation with your company and other viewers. SNAPCHAT Snapchat is a mobile-only video and image messaging platform and has over 150 million active daily users. Content sent between users disappears after 10 seconds. If it is added as part of a user s story, it disappears after 24 hours. INSTAGRAM STORIES Instagram Stories is an extension of Instagram, in video form. Like Snapchat, users can stream live footage, or upload a sequence of images or videos that disappear after 24 hours. Authentically promote your brand Video is a great way of demonstrating your product or service, while creating relevant and useful content for potential and existing customers. How-To videos are incredibly popular and are an easy way for your company to build up credibility. Deliver bitesize messages Although Snapchat and Instagram Stories lack the ability to target different people, they are great platforms for telling short stories quickly, to an already engaged audience. Start conversations YouTube and Facebook Live allow users to talk to your brand, and each other, to express their opinion on the content you have posted. Use video to ask questions, encourage debates and open a dialogue between you and your audience. Would you like to experiment with video, but you re not sure where to start? The Realia team is full of ideas, so get in touch if you would like some help. Page 21

22 CHAPTER 8 How to structure a social media campaign Page 22

23 STEP ONE: UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE For any campaign to be successful, you need a fundamental understanding of your customers. Ideally, you ll profile your customers and decide on the best way to target them with your online campaign. What factors do you need to consider? Firstly, what is the key problem your customer is facing and how can you resolve it? Secondly, what is going to be the overriding factor for a business choosing your product/service over a competitor? For any successful social media campaign, your goal is to convey both of these questions and answers effectively, ensuring your brand is visible and in mind. How will you communicate? This will depend on how your profile is set-up and will be either: as yourself, representing the brand directly as the brand/company. Both approaches can be extremely successful and if possible, it s best to take both into consideration. Each time you engage in social media you ll want your brand to leave a positive impression. No matter who you connect with, on the other side of the computer will be a person who is looking to relate to you. Page 23

24 STEP TWO: DEFINE YOUR GOALS The B2B marketing world isn t straightforward. There will always be difficulties but these can be resolved by setting goals for each campaign. Not only should you be thinking in terms of sales (although this is of course your ultimate goal); you also want to ensure each touching point with your potential customers is successful and leads are successfully nurtured along the road to becoming a sale. To work out the success of a social media campaign, ask yourself these questions: As we ve already mentioned, your business thrives on sales and with any campaign this is where you need to truly focus your attention. However, by answering the questions above you can easily refine your campaigns and change certain aspects to further assist potential and existing customers. Page 24

25 STEP THREE: MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS How can you work out the success of any campaign without having a means for analysing success rates? Of course, what counts as being successful will differ from company to company and, depending on your campaign s goals, a different factor may well apply. To measure your own success, look to integrate both volume and value principles. Volume is a way to measure growth and engagement with your target audience, whilst value is essentially your bottom line. For volume, factors that ll have an effect on overall success include: The volume of click-throughs to your website or landing page An increase in subscriptions or number of content download The growth in followers and fans on your social media pages The amount of likes, shares or favourites your online content receives By analysing this data, you can find where along the sales path potential customers are veering off. You ll rarely find a one-to-one sales ratio for each click-through, so assessing your volume can give you a better understanding of where improvements can be made. With the value, you re simply looking at sales numbers. How many leads have been generated from a campaign and how many sales were there as a result? When assessing this, consider lead quality. Do leads have all the information they need to make a decision right now? Or are they still in the decision process and haven t been fully converted? With value metrics, you ll be able to calculate your ROI and ascertain exactly how successful your campaigns are. You can tweak your future campaigns accordingly and make changes to improve success rates. Page 25

26 STEP FOUR: CHOOSE A UNIQUE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN Your goals and strategy will also differ depending on your industry, the price point of your product/service and even the target market. What would be successful for one company, can be viewed as a failure for others. Whilst this ebook is designed to give you a social media insight, it s important to tailor your own campaigns accordingly. There are some growing trends that have surfaced over the last few years and you should certainly consider the following when it comes to improving your social media presence and campaigns. KEEP TRACK OF YOUR COMPETITION More and more competitors for your business seem to arrive on a yearly basis, which is why social media has grown in importance. CONNECT YOUR CONTENT ACROSS DIFFERENT PLATFORMS Your content marketing should always be linked to social media. Ensure you re creating content that s easily shareable online. BRUSH UP ON YOUR KNOWLEDGE Get to grips with all the language of the social media platforms you re using and learn to talk to your audience in a way that resonates with them. FIND A PLATFORM THAT SUITS YOU LinkedIn is without a doubt your best choice, but don t limit yourself. Twitter is an excellent platform to explore and some B2B businesses find success on Facebook. You may even find niche forums online for your particular industry, so create a profile and get yourself out there. Page 26

27 CHAPTER 9 Social Media: Your Takeaway Points Page 27

28 SOCIAL MEDIA: YOUR TAKEAWAY POINTS Social media is now a way of life and the quicker you can get to grips with this valuable tool, the better your business will succeed online. Believe it or not, social media has been around for over a decade so if you haven't already, now is the time to get started! OK - fair enough it has mostly be promoted as a B2C tool, but now we ve opened your eyes to how large a role social media can play in your B2B strategy. It s startling, but many B2B companies still aren t coming to terms with social media, so get ahead of the game and start using the tips outlined in this guide. Not sure you should be wasting your time with tweeting, liking, sharing and poking? BOOST YOUR SEO PROSPECTS Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) remains important for any business, whether it s B2B or B2C. Nowadays your social media activities will have an effect on your search rankings, so everything is cross-referenced. Optimise all posts, Meta data and keywords to improve your website s SEO and Google s crawling robots will push you up the pecking order. PROVE WHY YOU RE THE BEST Social media gives you an opportunity to assert yourself as the industry expert. Create an editorial calendar of exciting content you can share with your customers online and showcase why your business is the go-to place. The more emphasis you place online, the likelier you will be to engage with industry influencers who ll link to your content. FORM RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS Social media provides a welcome opportunity to further your relationships by posting useful data, sharing information and just chatting in an informal way on a day-to-day basis. LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS By keeping your customers close, you ll be able to create new products or services that are directly beneficial to them. With Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn you can discover what customers like and dislike, whilst understanding their lifestyle in general. INCREASE YOUR BRAND AWARENESS With an excellent social media presence, you ll increase brand awareness and encourage customers to visit your website and recommend you to others. Successful B2B companies on social media put questions to their followers and encourage them to think or react accordingly. Page 28

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