By now it is common knowledge that social media is pregnant with possibilities for big business – particularly for B2B marketers.
But most B2B marketers are not leveraging social media to full potential to enhance their social media presence and boost their business. Here are five valuable tips how to leverage social media marketing for your B2B business:
- According to a recent social media marketing industry report, both LinkedIn and Facebook tied for first place among B2B marketers as their most preferred social media marketing platform. Blogging and Twitter came in second and third respectively. Thus, if you are interested in forging firm business connections with other B2B companies, your first step should be to maximize your presence on LinkedIn and Facebook.
- You will have to seriously consider SlideShare, which is similar to YouTube equivalent of the PowerPoint world. This is used by almost half of all B2B marketing experts and they claim that this method generates lot more online traffic from business owners than other platforms. The simple fact is SlideShare attracts nearly 60 million unique visitors every month. By aligning your B2B company with SlideShare (which incidentally was bought by LinkedIn in 2012), you will enhance your search rankings leading to more online exposure for your business.
- Be aware that social media is not an easy path to generate leads. You can certainly create connections quickly with social communications tools but long-term nurturing of leads is essential to actually realize sales. There are instances of prospects reading a vendor’s blog for several months before engaging that vendor. Quite often, a lead may need many marketing touches before becoming fruitful. If you ignore the need to nurture leads, you will be playing into the hands of your more agile competitors who are waiting in the wings.
- The onus is on you to take suitable steps to maximize the social media and SEO synergy. Statistics show that nearly one-third of all commercial searches on search engines are B2B in nature. Make no mistakes – SEO is absolutely imperative for modern B2B marketers that wish to exploit social media.
- Most importantly, it is imperative to have a SMM policy in place before you fully get involved in any B2B marketing campaign. Or else, you could waste considerable time and money, which are the two essential resources for B2B business. You should have designated staff to monitor the results and to ensure that SMM strategies remain efficient and effective.
Your Turn:
What is your B2B social media strategy for marketers? We’d love to hear your thoughts.