You needn't be on all social media networks. B2B marketers should aspire to have a strong presence on just a few networks rather than a weaker presence on others.
To get your social media marketing buck's biggest bang, focus on these three:
LinkedIn connects businesses directly to industry professionals. 90 million LinkedIn users are senior influencers and 63 million decision-makers. Only 303 million unique monthly users of 630 million user accounts are active. LinkedIn has far less 'clutter' content than other channels (particularly Twitter) and is all about delivering useful, relevant content. It's B2B marketers' most popular social platform – 92 percent use it in their digital marketing mix.
LinkedIn's most appealing feature, especially in B2B sales, is the ability to find out all about a target prospect on a professional level. And, by one of your connections, you can determine if there is an opportunity for a warm introduction. At that point, you're going to want to take the LinkedIn conversation into an offline, person-to-person interaction.
Twitter is a great way to get the word out and provide links back to their website. All tweets are unfiltered, unlike Facebook. Twitter basically displaced newswires to break news.
You can build lists of people you want to follow on Twitter (which could be public or private). And, they don't need to follow you back. Lists allow you to filter out all the tweets from your main news stream and concentrate on only a tiny section. For example, you can compile a list of reporters that cover your industry. You can answer, help them and be on your way to building a relationship if they ask a question or require some help. The same goes for your prospect lists.
Understand that Twitter's a conversational platform. Ask questions, respond to mentions – 77 percent of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet has been answered – engage with other users, retweet content and industry news. If you do all of the above, you can quickly increase engagement, make people interested in what you do, and create new business opportunities!
Youtube is the go-to video-sharing service on the internet and is Google's hottest property. Over one billion hours of video are watched daily, and men and women use it equally.
Videos can be used to inform and improve brand awareness of products and services – and with 96% of users viewing videos to learn more about a product or service, video is a platform you must use!
The best part about YouTube is that it is easy to share videos: 48 percent of people in a survey said they will be more inclined to share video content with their friends instead of any other media type.
Nevertheless, as video marketing continues to grow, there is also growing competition. To stand out, B2B businesses need to produce relevant, high-quality video content that responds to questions and addresses problems. Just sales videos alone are not going to be much helpful. How-to guides, product demos, case studies, tips, and tricks-these videos will attract people far more effectively than sales collaterals.
While informing the audience is essential, it's important to note that videos are also a medium of entertainment, so make sure that your videos are simple, entertaining, and interesting to watch, above all.