Posts Tagged ‘social media marketing’
Things to Consider before Entering Social Media for your B2B Business
May 3rd, 2012 | 
Author:
If you have just started exploring social media opportunities for your business, you must have got bombarded with opinions both positive and negative about the scope. There have been uncertainties regarding whether social media could only be winning in Business to Consumer firms. But results and case studies show that even B2B companies show confidence in Social Media.
B2B marketers use their Social Media campaign to:
- Acquire new business partnerships
- Gain marketplace insights
- Convert social activity into sales
Companies spend a lot of time and resources thinking social media is that magic wand which will rake in the business leads as number of fans or followers grow. Nobody can make money by merely having that 4+ digit number of likes or followers. It doesn’t matter how many tweets you sent if you are not networked with your target market.
Some of the factors to keep in mind:
Social media is not free: Maybe the registration is free but it takes lot of resources including money, time and manpower to actually start getting the tangible results.
Measuring ROI: As mentioned earlier number of fans or followers doesn’t give any insight about number of customers. To convert the fans or followers into sales it takes lot of planning and research even before actually starting the campaign.
Networking with target audience: Even before you can solve your customers’ problems or queries it is important to figure out whether do you really know who are your prospects on the social media? And, do you know where they are? Only when you actually know your TA, build the methods to add them to your network. In parallel work on the content strategy to reach, entice and acquire your customers.
Answering the “why”: You have heard that the right way to do the campaign is engaging your fans and followers in a conversation. Well, it is possible only when you actually get inside the conversation which is already happening in their minds!
Know the difference between social media lead & traditional lead: Social media leads are often soft leads. The person may not be ready for taking your product or services at that point of time. But you always have the opportunity to convince him/her to be an email subscriber. This is when powerful email campaigns come into the picture. Once this soft lead is ready for the purchase after a long research cycle you may convert them into the actual buyer. This takes a lot of influential content to be on place and trust and brand building initiatives. Only when the lead shows the interest in your offering you may put him/her into the traditional sales process!
The most important thing before entering the social media would be to fix the flaws you already know about! If the service you give or the product you sell is not of good quality, it doesn’t matter how active you are on social media. Neither you will be able to effectively promote about your business.
With a long time view you will be able to do the good things and some awesome things using social media. But don’t lose the focus from the search engine optimization, events, online forums and traditional media. They are and will be the strongest platforms for B2B business generation!
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Posted in Social Media Marketing | 
Tags: social media marketing, social media optimization | 
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14 Tips for Best Way to use LinkedIn for Business
Looking for smart ways to use your LinkedIn profile? Keep on reading.
1. Complete Your Profile: Make sure that your profile is up to date and you have filled it for perfection. LinkedIn says if you have a 100% complete profile, your chances of getting found are 40% more than that of incomplete ones. A display picture is a must and at least 3 recommendations will boost the value of your profile for the apparent reason of building trust.
2. Use Widgets: If you have an active personal blog or twitter account by using widgets you can import content published on other platforms to be available for your LinkedIn connections. At the same time you can bring content that is inside your LinkedIn profile to other web media such as blogs, social networking sites, website etc. Examples of widgets: LinkedInABox, LinedIN Badge.
3. Polls as Excellent Market Research: You can measure consumer habits and newest trends easily using the polls feature. Ask poll questions and make use of the wisdom of millions of professionals of your industry. You can integrate these polls results with facebook, twitter or embed the voting module in your website or blog.
4. Hidden Treasure - Question & Answer Feature: Under the “more” tab you will find a wealth of information on 22 different categories. You can ask or answer questions there and without a slightest hint, can promote your services by leveraging your expertise. You will not only get an idea on what other people in your industry are up to but also what your prospective customers are looking for. Look like an expert. Create a personal brand for the expertise your showcase!
5. Advertise your LinkedIn Profile: You want to be found that’s why you are on LinkedIn. Now to be found by people you are interested to build a network with isn’t left to mere coincidence. You have to work towards it by printing your LinkedIn URL on all marketing collaterals: website, blog, business cards, brochures, flyers, email newsletters also on email signature.
6. Join Groups: This is simple. But finding & joining groups is your job because LinkedIn doesn’t invite members to join your group. You have to invite people you think can be value adding members for the community you want to start about. “Groups” is always an excellent place to network with members of common interest, experience, affiliation and a common goal. You can start your own group too. Be certain that you always share only useful content.
7. Update your Status Frequently Enough: Being active on a social platform is important; make sure that you have an updated status message. Also integrate your status updates with other social media like facebook, twitter. I.e. update once and get published everywhere.
8. Double your Online Impact with Combined Social Media Approach: Whether your clients, colleagues are tweeting on twitter, posting on facebook ,commenting on blogs or simply forwarding YouTube videos if you are not a part of it maybe you are missing out on something. Whenever possible share the content or join the conversation by combining all the social media. That is, if a question is asked on twitter you can give a detailed answer on LinkedIn and give a link in twitter.
9. Make use of “search” Feature: Find people by their company name, city or industry. It can’t get easier than this. Also tell your contacts to introduce you to their contacts.
10. Thinking of hard selling techniques? : No, social media doesn’t work that way. Never promote your brand or products in a way that turns your prospects off.
11. Great Research Tool to Know about your Prospects: Do you know what your prospects want? LinkedIn can help you read their minds! Before you actually contact a prospect, spend some time knowing him, answer his queries, and get a complete insight on what are his business preferences. That sure saves you a lot of time in future process meanwhile you can get some expert points!
12. Ask your Happy Customers to Write Testimonials for you: You can request recommendations from your satisfied customers, as you know, that can gain you credibility as well as will boost your profile.
13. Look for Qualified Talent Pool: Post your job listings or if you want a job yourself you can look for connections related to a job you want.
14. We Got Even More:
a) If you are into product marketing then post about offers, discounts or deals.
b) Invite your expert connections to write a blog entry for you or to speak on an event.
c) Import contacts from other applications as well as export your contacts there to find more connections.
d) Give honest recommendations to your contacts.
e) Post your presentations using presentation application, list newsletters subscription information and archives.
f) Keep in touch with your LinkedIn contacts regularly, because maybe some of them are not actively present on the other media.
g) Try and schedule to meet your connections if you are in their city.
h) Make a set up to receive LinkedIn messages in your inbox so that you can answer them from there.
i) Link to articles posted on the web if they increase your credibility.
j) You may want to make use of LinkedIn direct ads service, you are sure to get quality traffic from your target market.
Not yet convinced of LinkedIn potential? EXPLORE IT. I am sure you will be convinced.
