Engaging Customers through Social Media (Part 2) | Milner Strategic Marketing

Engaging Customers through Social Media (Part 2)

social media symphony

As mentioned in our last e-newsletter, social media in the B2B space is a hot topic.

(Click here to read ‘Engaging Customers through Social Media – Part 1′)

If you are thinking of using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, e-newsletters or social media evaluation tools for your business, below are some tips and tricks that we have come across while working with our B2B clients.


LinkedIn:

  • If not already on it, join. It calls itself “The world’s largest professional network” citing 200 million members in 200 countries
  • Add connections soon after you meet/speak to them
  • Keep your profile updated – there is nothing worse when meeting someone, getting their business card for business X, and finding that their LinkedIn profile says they work for company Y
  • Ask for recommendations – having that third party validation is always helpful, especially when looking for new business, new partners and new recruits
  • Consider opening a Company LinkedIn page, it’s another way for search engines to index your company.  Company pages also allow you to open product and service tabs – another chance for you to highlight your offering
  • Utilise LinkedIn’s other assets such as the Jobs tab (on company and group pages), LinkedIn groups and sub-groups

Twitter:

  • If you are going to have a business Twitter account then ensure you have a complete profile with a description, picture/logo and website link
  • Be clear about who owns and manages the account, is it a company account or is it a personal account?  Many CXOs and employees have personal accounts, but it should be clear whether you are tweeting with your own opinions or on behalf of your company
  • Use consistently –Twitter accounts need constant attention (ideally daily)
  • Check your Twitter account direct messages, mentions and if relevant, respond to them.  If a potential customer/partner called you, you wouldn’t ignore them, and you should see Twitter in the same way

Facebook:

  • Keep your profile up to date – if you change your website, location, company size etc.- make sure it’s updated on all your communication channels
  • Be active on your wall, similar to Twitter, Facebook used for business requires consistent attention and engagement
  • Check and respond to messages – if you don’t, you could be losing out on leads
  • Engage –  ask questions, poll, use to RSVP for your events
  • Post photos, videos of your products/services – another way for your customers to see what you have to offer
  • Connect your Facebook account to your website with the “Like” button
  • If Facebook isn’t applicable to your target audience, you can always push your other communication channels and simply keep your contact details up to date

YouTube:

  • YouTube offers company’s the opportunity to increase awareness, demonstrate thought leadership and drive new business
  • It can improve your SEO – video links show up in search engines
  • It can increase awareness for your company – many of your potential customers are probably registered users of YouTube
  • It can generate new leads – use videos to promote lead generation by putting links to offers for additional content (whitepapers, webinars, etc) at the bottom of your page or at the end of a video
  • You can publish videos on your website easily
  • Push other social media channels and link back to your website
  • YouTube analytics will show who has visited your channel and what they have viewed

E-newsletters:

  • Create a template to match your company brand
  • Try to distribute regularly
  • Include your contact details and other communication channels (social media, website, email, and phone), you want it to be easy for customers to contact you
  • Format consistently (full story content in e-newsletter vs. a few sentences with a link back to website for the full story)
  • Analyse the opens and click-throughs

Measurement and Evaluation:

There are many paid and free tools available for social media measurement.  Try a few and see which works best for you and your company, but exercise caution of these tools and their promised rate of accuracy.   We know of one company that put a tender out for social media measurement tools.  They tested the solutions against each other and each one came back with different results.  Some did not even find what could be manually found in searches engines

Be sceptical, do your research, experiment with a few of the options to find the best option for what you and your company are trying to achieve.  Below are a few examples of free social media measurement and evaluation tools:

  • Google Alerts
  • Hootsuite
  • Twitter Advanced Search
  • Facebook page insights
  • LinkedIn page statistics
  • YouTube analytics
  • Google Analytics
  • Klout
  • Social Mention

If you would like to discuss using social media for your business, or whether you are already using social media and want some help managing your channels, call the office on 01473 633 123.

Social Media confusion to clarity – Milner can help make social media work for your business.
 

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