How Do You Use Social Media? Part 1
In business today, it is almost a given that social media forms part of a company?s marketing plan, regardless of the size of company. London 2012 was the first truly ?social media Olympics?, the results for sponsors can be measured in terms of sales, which makes social media an even more effective marketing tool as it can be measured.
How well is social media working for you? Do you know if it actually meets your business objectives – which broadly for many is creating and converting sales opportunities? This year has seen more growth for adoption of social media for B2B companies. The time and energy you spend on using the social media tools available will vary according to your business needs, but there are a few things you can focus on to ensure you?re getting the most from it.
- Use social media to drive users to your website
Whilst in the consumer world, many companies use the social networking sites themselves to promote their products. However, the more effective strategy for B2B businesses is to use the sites to drive traffic back to their own sites. It?s important that B2B companies update their websites, in order to encourage re-visits, and also to add social components like Facebook and LinkedIn shares to allow visitors to spread the word about a company?s solutions to industry issues.
2. Blogging ? it?s the hub of B2B social media success
Businesses using a blog to valuable, educational content to their website at least once or twice a week will drive traffic to their blogs (and websites) through a combination of search and social media. Finding the time and content to regularly post blogs is the key aspect here; results really do show though that it?s a highly effective tool in driving the right people to your website repeatedly.
3. Use emails as part of your social media plan
Email newsletters are a great way to integrate your social media activity. They provide a regular opportunity to post updates on LinkedIn and Twitter, with links directly to your website. As with blogs, you need to produce relevant, educational content ? not blatant self-promotion, as the core of your newsletters.
4 Identify leads from social media as genuine business prospects
Increasingly we?re seeing B2B companies launch dedicated programs to generate leads through social media, with successful results. Marketing is more sophisticated, and more accessible to businesses than ever before, due to the internet and social media. These days, businesses can make contact to more people, more regularly. This means that contact can be made at every stage of the buying process. Regular, relevant content being delivered leads to better educated customers, which ultimately leads to business prospects.
In part 2 of this blog we?ll consider a few more ways to use social media effectively.
