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LinkedIn Works with B-to-B Social Media Marketing

February 23, 2010 in B2B, Business, Communications, LinkedIn, Marketing, Technology, blogging, internet marketing, prospecting, social media, twitter by gtaylor | 2 comments

Twitter processes 50 million tweets per day, more than 100 million people actively use Facebook on their mobile devices, and LinkedIn has surpassed the 60 million member mark as of December 2009. Social media is not only changing how people communicate with each other, but also reshaping the way companies market their product(s)/service(s).

But, how does social media work in business-to-business marketing?

LinkedIn may be a forgotten network, but it can drive traffic to your site or blog, help qualify leads, or expand your customer base outside of your normal demographic.  LinkedIn is a very powerful social media network.  If you are not using LinkedIn, here’s five reasons why you should:

1. Networking Potential

Twenty years ago, businesses used dictionary size directories, called phonebooks, to locate a company that may benefit from their services.  You dialed the number listed in the phonebook and you either talked to the secretary, who transferred you to a voicemail, or you were lucky enough to get through to the individual you wanted to talk to, but were quickly told that your weren’t interested. There was no chance to build a relationship with that person, or someone else in that company. LinkedIn allows you to network, share interests and helpful hints with professionals all over the world.  Whether it be over the phone, in a discussion, or simply messaging back and forth, LinkedIn can help make that initial interaction go smoothly.  Not to mention, your new LinkedIn connection can potentially be your new follower on Twitter or Facebook friend.

2. Validates Your Expertise

Many people have “guru” or “expert” in their Twitter or LinkedIn bio, and few live up to the name.  Group discussions and the Q&A forum give you the opportunity to share your expertise or past experiences that are relevant to the discussion topic or the question being asked.  Small business owners who are just starting their business frequent the Q&A forum with questions from branding to inventory management to public relations.  Taking time to answer a question may help you reel in a new client.

3. Displays Leadership

Being a follower only counts on Twitter.  Creating a group on LinkedIn allows your leadership skills to shine.  Groups are a great way to build an internal social network.  Target individuals who have a common interest and invite them to join your group. If you can’t dedicate the time to starting a group and moderating the activity, join a group and spark some interesting discussions and debates.  People want to interact with others and offer their two cents to the discussion at hand. Once people see that you are an active contributor to group discussions or news links, they are apt to view your profile to learn more about you.  If the company you work for has a company profile on LinkedIn, they’ll view that profile as well.  A little group participation can go a long way.

4. Qualified Lead Generation

Why pay for a lead list when you have a tool such as LinkedIn to assist your new business development.  I’ve had a few free trials of contact list databases and while they provide some insight to past marketing activity for a particular company, I have found LinkedIn to be more beneficial.  While you can’t view someone’s profile and know right off the bat what they are looking for, you can see who they are connected with, what events they attended recently, what groups they are a part of and if they’ve asked any questions or participated in any group discussions.  Pay attention to who has recommended them and why.  You may even discover one of your contacts or friends knows the individual you are trying to contact.

5. Inbound Marketing

LinkedIn can make your phone ring.  The more you participate, the more people in your social network trust you.  If all you are doing is posting links to your website, your chances of attracting a new customer is slim.  Going back numbers 2 and 3 above, active participation (and correct answers) displays your expertise and leadership skills.  Let your LinkedIn activity and company profile do the talking for you.  Monitor your website and/or blog analytics.  Get an idea of where your traffic is coming from. Chances are LinkedIn is going to account for at least 10%, if not more, of your website’s traffic.  Convert those visitors into customers.

LinkedIn is a valuable social media network for business-to-business marketing. The results may not come as quickly as you want them to, but building a trustworthy business relationship takes time.

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Five Twitter Mistakes You Must Avoid

February 22, 2010 in Communications, Marketing, Technology, emarketing, internet marketing, social media, twitter by gtaylor | 3 comments

Since Twitter went maintream, companies have been trying to implement a Twitter strategy capable of producing a return on their investment.  Being an avid Twitter user since 2008, I have seen an astronomical amount of tweet spam and endless attempts at promoting a product or service, ignoring the fact that social media is about relationship building and creating value for your customers. Depending on your content, you either sink or swim in the Twittersphere. Here’s five tips to help you stay afloat.

Do not follow everyone.

It’s understandable that you have to start following people to get a follow in return, but attempting to follow everyone you possibly can tarnishes your Twitter reputation.  Twitter has begun to automatically shut down accounts that mass follow people.  If you are a small business with one location in Indiana, it makes no sense to follow people in Florida. Applications such as TwitterLocal and Twellow are great places to begin looking for your target audience.  Search for people tweeting about products or services similar to yours and follow them.  Since they already have an interest in your what you have to offer, the more inclined they will be to chat with you.

Never repeat the same tweet.

A quick way to lose followers is repeatedly tweeting the same thing.  If you have two or three tweets that your followers can memorize, you have a problem on your hands.  Providing the same information day after day gets boring after a while.  If your favorite TV show aired the same episode each week, you would find a new show to watch.  Same thing happens on Twitter. People want fresh, entertaining and informative content, and they count on your to give that to them.

Constant self promotion.

The most overlooked tweets are the ones filled with self promotion.  Including your website link and a short bio in your Twitter profile is all the self promotion you need.  Creative and compelling content makes people visit your profile to find out more about you.  Linking to your blog posts and other news relevant to your industry is acceptable because people with similar interests want to stay informed on industry issues.  Constant self promotion is one way communication and holds no value to your network.

Keeping stale followers.

In order to keep a fresh network, you have to perform routine maintenance on your Twitter.  People create profiles all the time, send three tweets and never tweet again.  You want to maintain an active network.  Applications such as Tweepi allow you to see who follows you and how active they are on Twitter.  Tweepi also allows you to see what percentage of your followers just post links and how often they retweet.  Performing maintenance on your Twitter network weekly ensures you will get the most out of your network.

Creating an account and forgetting about it.

If you have decided to start a social media strategy, make sure you have the time to maintain it.  People will easily forget about you if you don’t tweet on a regular basis.  Just like you want an active network, others do too.  With the number of applications that allow you to schedule tweets up to a month in advance, you should not have a problem keeping your account updated.  Schedule your tweets and keep an eye on your replies and direct messages.  It’s better to respond to someone later than not tweeting at all.

As the use of Twitter increases among consumers and businesses, avoiding these five mistakes can attribute to the success of your Twitter strategy.  Losing a follower is similar to losing a customer.  Please tweet responsibly.

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Don’t Settle for Being a Tweeple – Transform Your Company into a Twilebrity!

February 19, 2010 in B2B, Communications, Marketing, emarketing, social media, twitter by MOster | No comments

Photograph by Michael Halsband for Vanity Fair

The six women are profiled in the January 2010 issue of Vanity Fair, glamorous in trench coats and stilettos, flashing their mobile devices as they would the hottest designer bag. Who are these women, and why are they – and their handheld PDA’s – worthy of editorial coverage in a national publication?

They are twilebrities, Twitter’s version of celebrity. A twilebrity is someone who devotes a vast amount of time, energy and skill to tweeting, and is rewarded with a massive flock of followers. It is not necessary to be a traditional celebrity before being assigned twilebrity status, but some celebrities have reached Twilebrity status.

Who is next in line to join the twilebrity ranks? Ideally, your company is. Now, before you protest that you simply do not possess the time or resources to tweet your days away, allow me to clarify: I refer to becoming a twilebrity in your industry. The goal, at least initially, is to build a thriving online community of b-to-b connections. Establish a strong presence on Twitter among those in your field, and word will get back to consumers.

You can start building your follower base by heeding the unspoken rules of twilebrities. The most sacred law? Give in order to receive. Twilebrities are generous to their followers. As referenced in the Vanity Fair article, the most popular twilebrities (of the non-celebrity origin) respond to the majority of those who send them tweets. They are also exceptionally good listeners, paying close attention to their followers and often recommending certain followers to their hefty audience. Though at first glance this may not appear to be the case, at its core, Twitter is all about conversations as opposed to isolated tweets. This is part of its allure.

Gaining twilebrity status for your company is about much more than glitz and glam. Twitter, more so than any other social media network, is in the process of taking over the world. Its army of members has grown at a frenetic pace over the past two years. Make no mistake: Adding a social media strategist to your staff or campaign to amp up your Twitter account is a worthwhile investment, one that has a high potential ROI.

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Which Social Network is Right for My Business?

February 18, 2010 in Business, Communications, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Media Buying, social media, twitter by gtaylor | No comments

Being a social media strategist, when a client asks what social network should they use for their social media marketing, I have to come up with an answer.  Of course I can give them an answer based on personal social media achievements, but what I do for my own benefit isn’t necessarily the best choice for their business.  If you’re seeking to find an answer to this conundrum, please continue reading.

I often compare social media marketing to traditional advertising.  Before you disagree, think about what traditional advertising is. Traditional advertising consists of purchasing the right media (magazine ads, TV ads, billboards, radio, etc.) to communicate your message to your target audience.  The main goal of traditional advertising is to achieve the maximum ROI. Right?

The only difference between social media and traditional advertising is the media used to communicate your message.  Which brings us back to the the million dollar question, which network is going to be best for your business?

Here’s how you answer that question:

Identify Your Target Audience

Although you may think it’s silly that I’m mentioning this, a lot of businesses join social networks and communicate with people that have no interest in their company and are not in their targeted demographic.  Determining the intended audience is the foundation for your social media marketing strategy.  Skipping this step will result in wasted time and money.

Find Out Which Networks Your Target Audience Use

There are plenty of case studies and statistics on the internet on the various social media networks.  Your target audience may not use Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Contrary to what all the social media experts say, the “Big 3″ aren’t the only forms of social media.  Forums, microsites, or other types online communities work just as well.  Doing your homework to find out how your audience prefers to communicate can make the decision process a little easier for you.

Learn the Lingo

If your audience is college students, you have to know how to talk their language. Times are changing and the vernacular used by college students now are different than ten years ago.  Saying the right thing in the wrong way will cause people to tune you out.

Test Drive the Network

You don’t purchase a car without driving it and you don’t buy shoes without trying them on.  You have to know how to use the network before launching your social media marketing plan.  Setting up a test profile and using just about every feature there is to offer is a great way to educate yourself on what the network has to offer.  Who knows, you may have the ability to inform someone about something they didn’t know (massive cool points for you!).

Locate Third Party Applications

There is a large number of third party applications for Twitter and Facebook.  A simple Google search will assist you in finding some applications that may work for your business.  From something as simple as a feed that posts new blog postings to Twitter, to a fundraising application for a cause on Facebook, there’s some interesting applications out there that you can put to good use.

Measurement and Maintenance

Social media is about interaction and fun, but there’s a serious side to it too. Monitoring your network and keeping a fresh, active group of people involved in your network ensures ongoing communication.  Determine how you are going to measure your campaigns performance and let your network know you are open to feedback.  It’s the only way you’ll grow.

Determining the right social network for you may take some time, but following these six steps will get you off to a good start.  Don’t be dismayed if the results you want to see aren’t immediate.  Social media is about building relationships and gaining trust.

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B2B and Facebook: Does Your Company Need a Facebook Page?

February 15, 2010 in Business, Communications, Facebook, Marketing, Technology, prospecting, social media, twitter by gtaylor | No comments

Typing ‘Facebook’ in Twitter search will produce many tweets linking to social media blogs claiming a Facebook page is essential to the success of your social media marketing plan. Even though Facebook directs more online users than Google, investing your time and money into creating a page may not be necessary.

Social media is very similar to media buying.  You spend money on the type of media that is going to give you the best return on your investment.  Some companies have no need for TV or magazine advertisements because their target audience listens to the radio.

It does not make sense, financially, for a company to spend money on marketing that will not generate a return on their investment.  Just because a social media network is popular does not mean you need to join.

Having a Facebook page with 45 fans (35 being employees and the other ten spouses or friends), and links to your website is not going to generate new business.

Do the research.  If your current customers don’t use a certain social media network, chances are you will not find new customers there either.

Facebook pages do not work for every industry.  Spending time creating and maintaining a page that produces minimal or no results will just be a waste of time.

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