Trying to integrate social media into their marketing strategy is a challenge for many B2B companies. Often they’re only familiar with social media from a personal perspective, and aren’t sure how they can be using it professionally.
Just like any other type of marketing campaign, you have to start somewhere. In this article, I’ll outline the three major activities you need to complete to get you started off right with social media.
Follow these three steps to start your social media program the right way, and get the most out of these new media.
1. Analyze Competitors
To give yourself a good foundation from which to start your social media program, you’ve got to do some research. The first involves researching your competitors. Seeing what they’re up to will help you differentiate your B2B company in the social media landscape.
- Discover what programs, tools, and content they are using.
- Now look to see what they’re NOT using.
This analysis should also include the social media platforms and technology they’re using. Understanding how they’re using these can help you shape your program as well.
Look at their online presence
Study these characteristics of your competitor’s online social media presence:
- How do they present themselves? Are their branding elements clear? What type of company information do they include?
- What’s their fan base like? How many followers do they have, and what’s the nature of the relationship? (Are they employees, friends, customers, etc.) How interactive are they with their fans? Do they have conversations with them, or are they only talking “to” (aka “at”) them? Is their fan base growing or shrinking?
- What’s their content like? What do they send out? Do they respond to messages? Do they promote themselves, their products, etc.?
2. Identify Opportunities
The next step is to identify the opportunities available to you with social media. Learn what online communities are relevant to your market. See what they’re talking about, and what information is being shared. This includes listening to comments users have about your brand, as well as the actual information they’re sharing. For example, you should listen for mentions of your brand, as well as the frequency of the mentions, and the sentiment behind them (frustration, happiness, gratitude, etc.).
Secondary to this, discover which influencers are active in your community. By tapping into them, you’ll be able to super-charge your social media program, as they’ll lend you social proof.
Add this to the information you previously found out about your competitors, you’ll see a clear path start to take shape for your own B2B company’s social media program.
3. Understand Your Target Audience
Finally, you’ve got to understand who your audience is. Who will be reading, sharing, and interacting with you on social media? Identify your prospects’ business needs and challenges, and then plan to create content on those topics.
Identifying their social media preferences is key as well, including discovering their platform and content type preferences. After all, you want to make sure you’re sharing the right content on the right platform, otherwise your program will fail.
How to search on social media
Each social media platform has a way to perform searches on it. Usually there’s a Search field or functionality on it. Enter your search terms in the field and see what shows up in the results.
What to look for
You’re looking for the following information on your audience:
- What platform are they using? Are they on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or are they blogging?
- Who are they interacting with? Are they simply sharing, or are they having conversations too?
- Who are they connected to? Who are they following and who follows them?
4. Think you’re ready?
Using these three tips, you can help any of your B2B clients set up a social media program the right way. They’ll be ready for success. Are you ready to help them?
