Finding B2B customers through social media marketing can be like trying to find the mythical gold at the end of the rainbow.
No matter how much effort businesses pour into creating social media content and trying to engage with contacts, the goal of consistent leads and sales never seems to get any closer.
One of the main reasons is that many B2B businesses focus too heavily on the conversion/lead nurturing side of the social media equation, and not sufficiently on attracting followers. This is like counting the money before you’ve made it.
It’s true that having hundreds of connections on LinkedIn and thousands of followers on Facebook and Twitter doesn’t, on its own, guarantee more sales, but you do need a reasonable follower base for your content marketing and networking efforts to bear fruit.
If you’re struggling to grow your follower base, the following tips will help you to stand out more on social media and cultivate the contacts you need to convert into customers.
Make sure that you’re using the right social media networks. You won’t have time to use them all to their full potential, and you may not need to, in any case, so focus your main efforts on the one or two platforms most used by your target buyers.
Your choice will be influenced by the communication style preferred by your personas and your campaign goals.
Start with some ambitious but achievable follower-related goals for your chosen social media platform, e.g. 1000 new followers on Facebook, and 200 new LinkedIn connections. These should be aligned with your business goals and revenue targets, so define your KPIs by assessing how many sales you need to meet your revenue objectives, the number of sales-qualified leads (SQLs) you need for each new sale, how many marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) are required for each SQL, and finally, how many social media followers you will need to generate this number of MQLs. Setting social media marketing KPIs encourages a strategic and ROI-focused approach and prevents drift.
Social media is one of the best content marketing channels for sharing material published on your company blog or website. However, re-posting links to blogs hosted elsewhere will not, on its own, encourage people to connect with you. Give people an added incentive by publishing original content directly onto the platform. This could be a blog on LinkedIn’s native blog application or an exclusive White Paper available solely through the platform, photos or videos on Instagram, a time-limited special offer for Twitter followers, or a webinar on Facebook. In short, don’t just use your social media platforms to drive traffic to your website or blog – invest in them as a means of generating leads in their own right.
Social media is a competitive content platform, so make the most of #hashtags to improve the visibility and searchability of your content to new users.
Hashtags are also a good way of integrating crossover content published on multiple platforms, encouraging two-way engagement between your followers on LinkedIn (for example) and those on Twitter or Facebook. Choose your hashtags carefully. There is a wide range of popular hashtags that may work well for your business, such as #love (the number one most popular Instagram hashtag in 2022!), #marketingmix, #magento etc – but you can also create your own hashtags linked to your target keywords, or hashtags and topics popular with your target followers. Research what hashtags your personas are engaging with at the moment, and those used by your main competitors on social media.
Social media is an intrinsically personal and informal content medium, so while there is definitely a place for serious and professional content on social media, don’t be afraid to express your brand personality through your social media interactions. Allow employees who post on behalf of your company to speak with their own ‘voice’ as much as possible, and allow followers to see who you are as a company of human beings, not just a faceless business. This helps build trust and brand engagement among existing followers, and also gives new people a reason to follow you, differentiating your business from its competitors in a way that may not be obvious through your website.
At JDR, we provide a range of social media marketing services to help businesses develop their social media profile, build a strong follower base, and use these digital assets to encourage greater lead generation.
To discuss the right strategy for you and find out more about how we work, please call 01332 343281 today.
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