While more B2B marketers than ever before are investing in social media campaigns, it can be a bit overwhelming at first to sort out all the different platforms and channels. For every B2B marketers who swears by LinkedIn, there’s another that says Facebook is where you need to be focused. In some cases, the “rules” seem to change overnight, so here are some basic social media hacks to get you started.
Hack #1: Tap into the power of your employees
It’s easy to assign all the social media responsibilities to a single person on the marketing team, but many companies are finding it’s easier to divide and conquer. That’s because single employees in your company may have a more active presence on the most popular social media platforms than the company itself. So it makes sense to empower these employees to become part of what is known as an “employee advocacy” program. The good news is that leads generated through these employee advocacy programs are 7 times as likely to convert as other leads. Two companies doing this well are IBM and Adobe.
Hack #2: Hang out in popular online communities
Every industry has a popular online community where people can trade ideas, have conversations, and share insights into what’s helping them succeed. In some cases, these online communities exist via LinkedIn, but that’s not always the case. The reason people go here is to get “the truth” rather than a lot of marketing spin. But there’s no reason why you can’t hang out in these communities and contribute to the conversations – especially if your company is being mentioned. Nobody wants to be spammed with a lot of offers and come-ons, but there’s plenty of room here to participate and earn thought leadership status.
Hack #3: Use social video to improve your customer testimonials
It’s quite nice to have a lot of text testimonials on your site – “I loved this product and it worked for our business better than expected!” – but it’s even nicer if you can transform these into video testimonials. The reason is simple – it’s a lot more authentic when you can see the person explain in front of a camera (or, at least, a smartphone screen) why a product worked as expected. Let’s face it, a text testimonial can be generated in a few minutes. But a video testimonial is much more of a “marketing artifact” – something that can be passed down from one marketing campaign to the next. And it’s much easier to share across social platforms.
Hack #4: Use a social media platform nobody else is using
OK, everybody in your industry is using Facebook these days? Then get on Instagram and start publishing Instagram Stories. Everyone is on LinkedIn? Then think about ways to use Twitter more effectively. The point here, as hockey great Wayne Gretzky once said, is to skate where the puck isn’t. In other words, zig when others zag. It’s a great way to build momentum and establish your own little niche in the social media world without worrying about what other rivals are doing.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.