Why Social Networking for B2Bs?
Most of us regularly use social media for personal use only. But in recent years, businesses have been making their presence known in Social Media circles because of the value that social networking brings as a vital online marketing tool. When used as one of the aspects associated with online marketing and PR building, it can boost growth, increase brand awareness, reinforce customer loyalty, open the lines of communication and increase lead generation.
Additionally, the weight of social media has influenced the way advertising marketing budgets are delegated. The success of online marketing as a form of advertising has many other forms of advertising media scrambling to keep up. Radio and print are all but obsolete as a form of effective marketing to certain demographics.
B2C often takes advantage of social sites for online marketing and many have great success when done efficiently. But how important and effective is social media for businesses that specialize in a B2B relationship? If you think that it is a waste of time for your B2B online marketing efforts, you may want to reconsider that thought and add social networking as part of your company’s marketing strategy. Here’s why:
SEO Optimization
As an online marketer, it is my job to understand the intricacies involving SEO ranking. Search engines like Google and Bing continually make changes to the algorithms they use to find relevant material associated with keywords that the user input for their search query. These search engines are trying to provide the user with only relevant material from a trustworthy source.
For those in PR, social media relations can help you keep informed of trends in social media and content marketing, gain more insights regarding followers, helps your company develop a social persona, and it provides an excellent platform for blogs, articles and videos.
Social media activity carries a significant amount of influence in more competitive industries where a company may struggle to rank high on search results. When followers on social media mention your company, review you, share material and comment on posts, this increases the trust factor that search engines rely on when pulling the user’s list of relevant and trustworthy sources.
Googling your business by name not only retrieves your website, but also your company’s links to your social media sources as well. Being the information hoarders that we have become since the dawn of the internet, multiple forms of legitimate information sources helps the customer place trust in your ability to perform needed services to their expectations.
Changing content on a website regularly can pose a challenge. Social media platforms give businesses a unique way to present updates or post articles on a daily basis and allow your information to be easily shared and passed on.
Lead Generation
Hopefully, by now you recognize how social networking can be a great way to connect with other businesses, current clients and prospective clients. It provides a large reach to a diversified audience when compared to traditional advertising media sources. To further reinforce the importance social media plays in the grand scheme of online marketing, here are some recent statistics from 2015:
• Twitter has approximately 320 million active users monthly
• Facebook has approximately 1.55billion active members monthly
• LinkedIn professional network boasts 396 million user profiles
As with traditional forms of media like TV, radio or print, if you want numbers regarding the effectiveness of your advertising campaign, the only way to know is to wait and see if business increased or if the customer mentions the advertised call to action. In contrast, online marketing is unique, in that stat reports can be generated at any time and provides exact numbers, instead of a guessing game.
Connect With Employees
Another benefit of social media is that it helps to connect your organization with its employees as well. Perhaps they consume their employer news from the company’s social profiles to stay abreast on current information. Employees are a great source of free “word of mouth” advertising. Many of them may “like” your posts or even share them with their friends.
While your focus is primarily on reaching business owners and building public relations, you also need to realize that some of your employee’s “friends” are business owners, CEOs, Founders, Presidents and decision makers! Getting your posts shared by your employees not only helps to generate possible new leads, but helps your employee connect with your company on a deeper and more emotionally invested level. It gives them a sense of belonging and pride in the company they work for. Their positive feedback about the business also looks great to outsiders that may be considering doing business with your company.
Just Say Yes!
Your clients, employees, and prospects are doing it, so should you! Despite the newness of the social media madness, it would be erroneous of you to believe that you can avoid social media and continue to grow using traditional advertising methods. One of the most significant quotes I’ve used as a marketing advertiser is; “You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results.” Growth requires taking chances and doing something that you wouldn’t normally do.
I’ve known a few business owners that were petrified of engaging in business online outside of having their website. They felt that social networking was “just a fad” that would pass. That type of logic will be to your detriment if you adopt the same policy. Holding your company back from technological advancements associated with social media may give a prospective client the impression that you are “old” in your thinking or that your products or services are outdated. Holding back doesn’t make you look “cool” or like a rebel against the establishment. It just makes you look out of touch.
Share the Knowledge
Perhaps your business is the leader in the industry. It’s full of expertise and knowledge that could help others. I suggest using social media to its fullest potential by sharing your experience and understanding of the industry. LinkedIn provides an easy-to-use article/blog platform on which you can post informative and relevant material.
As an added bonus, when you write and post an article, you also provide more trustworthy link sources for the search engine to link your company to when a user performs a search. I recommend posting on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and/or Google+ if you have profiles set up on these social sites. The more profiles, the better… especially when building your brand and when trying to gain PR momentum.
In summation, the best advice I can give is to have fun and enjoy it! Post something funny, post an informational article, post about a new product…heck, post about an employee’s new baby….just go online and post something with the intent of building stronger more meaningful online connections that will result in longer lasting and significant B2B and PR relationships.
Written By PRSA Colorado Chapter member: Rachel Sawyer, VP of Marketing & Sales at Seed Technologies, Inc.
