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B2B social media marketing strategies?
We're a B2B printing firm and have just recently decided to jump on the social media bandwagon. Where can we learn about B2B social media marketing strategies? What sites are best for B2B interactions? How do you make social media work for you?
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4 Answers
I would say the best way to start is by listening to the conversation going on now in your niche. By listening and then participating you can ease your way into the social media world.
I often recommend a business blog to my clients. A blog is a fantastic way to start the conversation, and you have probably already written much of it. If you have an e-mail newsletter, you can probably adopt most of your previous newsletters as blog posts. This will have a few benefits, first you will provide more content for search engines to index, which increases the likelihood that your site will show up in organic search engine results.
Another benefit to posting your past (and future) newsletters as a blog is the fact that you now have something you have already produced that prospects and interested parties can comment, ask questions etc. You now have a conversation going that will give you a lot more information about what your prospects are looking for in the social media sphere.
Start with your marketing philosophy. Social media marketing is typically not very successful if you try to apply traditional outbound marketing tactics. Social media requires an inbound marketing philosophy that pulls rather that pushes on your target market. Social media is most effective by finding where your target market "hangs out" online and providing insight quality content. Find your target and give them a reason to come to you (this is where you seen the increasing popularity of free webinars, white papers, case studies, etc.). Check out the Inbound Marketing University for more details and direction.
Dear Printing Firm,
Don't get yourself caught up in social fog. The BIG PICTURE is that most B2B companies are not even tapping 20% of the true potential of social media... Things like Social CRM, Social e-Commerce, Social Dashboards, etc.
Instead, most think that setting up a Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Blog will cover everything.
The fact remains that a strategy needs to be put into place. Each one of these tools must serve a purpose that adds value to all stakeholders.
In addition, the type of industry involved with Social Media B2B plays a key role in determining that strategy. Facebook & Linked In are a formadable combination for many B2B companies (See: http://www.focus.com/ugr/research/sales/why-facebook-matters-b2b/ ).
Yet, I believe that a printing firm would benefit more from intregration of social media platforms and traditional marketing tools like e-mail, mobile, and billboards (See Social Media Strategy Flowchart: http://www.slideshare.net/DIRfounder/social-marketing-tactic-flowchart )
Another very important thing to remember is that MOST of your business results are generated by the customers you already have, yet, most businesses spend their advertising resources of time and money on looking for new customers.
Why not simply use social media as a tool to gather feedback, address consumer complaints and to enhance internal communication?
Check out this article providing 8 more tips on how social media can be used for B2B.
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24755.asp
Hello Kyle
Social media is about people and so is business. I am working in a B2B market and I find that helping our clients and industry shareholders is the best way to grow your brand in social media. Think about how you can make your customers life easier and in the process you will be seen an expert.
Last year I wrote a short post: 8 steps to social media goodness http://goo.gl/0Onj. I hope this will get you thinking in the right direction.
Main thing in social media is to engage and get the conversation going. But don't forget that in the end you need to eat and for that you need money. How To Measure Social Media ROI http://goo.gl/pATAhttp://goo.gl/bizg and http://goo.gl/1r6M. Measure what you are doing!
A few more links for you:
Slidecast: B2B Lead Genration Using Social Media http://goo.gl/7MBo
B2B Business Case for Social Media http://goo.gl/N5vR
Social media works in every business, where you have to communicate with people :) Find out what they want and give it to them.
Sincerely
Priit Kallas
Dreamgrow.com
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