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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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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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Intel Corp. Turning to Social Media for Consumer Reaction

February 8, 2010 in Business, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Media Buying, Technology, social media, twitter by gtaylor | 2 comments

Intel Corporation decided to spend big on Super Bowl ads, and now executives are logging onto social networks to see what the consumers thought of their ads.

Intel not only paid almost $4 million dollars for the two advertisements during the game, but they sponsored the post-game show.

Intel’s social media team watched Facebook, Twitter and uploaded their commercials to YouTube immediately after they aired.

This is a very interesting approach taken by Intel.  Their approach answers my question in an indirect way.  Social media is definitely changing the landscape not only for marketing, but also feedback and market research.

Prior to social media going mainstream, companies would have had to send out survey’s or monitor sales for audience response to their advertisements.  Now, the feedback is instantaneous.

Twitter and Facebook may not last forever, but social networking is staying for a while.

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Where’s All the New Business from Social Media?

February 5, 2010 in Business, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, New Business, Technology, social media, twitter by gtaylor | 4 comments

Self proclaimed “Social Media Experts” wrote blogs, sent tweets, and created multiple presentations on how social media is going to bring in loads of new business and increase sales.  Although some companies have seen an increase, others have not.  Social media is all about building relationships and that is were some social media strategies go wrong.

You can take the time to listen to all the podcasts, webinars, and presentations you feel is necessary to become more informed on how to handle social media, but in the end, you have to cater your approach to your targeted audience.

You can not build relationships if you do not communicate effectively.  Creating a Twitter account and just posting links to your website, blog, and digital press releases are often viewed as annoying.  Social bookmarking sites were created for that.

Posting an occasional tweet with a link is fine, but two way communication is what drives social media networks.  It’s the two way communication that makes people’s Twitter accounts interesting.  Facebook works the same way.  If you just post links to your group/page wall, you don’t create any value for your group members of fans.

Social media is all about being social.  You don’t go into a new business pitch quoting links to your website or blog, and you don’t fill a presentation with them either.  If you have not gotten the response you want from your social media efforts, evaluate your activity.  If you are doing everything right, be patient, Twitter wasn’t built in one day.

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