Inspired by a slideshare posted by Natascha Thomson, The 10 Rules of B2B Social Media Marketing, I wanted to share my top five rules for B2B Social Media Marketing Success. Let me know if you agree, or what rules you follow by tweeting me @MarissaPick.
#1: BREAK THE RULES AND HAVE FUN!
- Social media provides a way for marketers to test the waters and try something new. Social media is an exciting and new space to experiment, and see major returns. Break the rules, have a little fun, and as a brand let your corporate hair down. Social media gives a behind the scenes look into a person or brand, and can help to facilitate deeper engagement with your audience.
#2: KNOWING WHAT TO DO IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS WHAT NOT TO DO
- Every social media campaign needs a strategy, and it’s crucial to understand your goals. Knowing what you want to accomplish and how you will measure success is crucial before you launch any campaign. All social media platforms are not the same, so leveraging the proper channels, and having a way to measure your campaign is so very important, and sadly often over looked. Think strategically and decide what you’re going to do before you launch, and start small, you can always expand once you have results.
#3: SOCIAL MEDIA ACTUALLY WORKS!
- Natascha shared a great statistic from Forrester Research within her SlideShare deck, “85% of business decision-‐makers said at least one social media channel is important when making technology purchase decisions.” Social Media has the power to influence the decision makers. When leveraged properly social media channels are a great place to share content to help influence and drive decision making at the very early stages. Make sure you have solid content which targets and engages with your audience.
#4: ENGAGEMENT = ESSENTIAL
- Social Media is a platform to drive conversation and any post should always focus around engagement. It doesn’t matter if you have 20,000 or 200 followers, what matters is that you have a captive and engaged audience. I find visual content works well for my account to drive the RTs, Likes, and Shares.
- Quick Tip: Find a quote or stat and download the Quoter App. It’s a great tool to brighten up your content, and quickly share on social media. I shared the quote below from MarketingProfs Ann Handley during the recent NYC Social Media Week. Since posting this to my account it has generated 45 ReTweets and 38 Favorites making this one of my most popular posts to date
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#5: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
- Why should your audience follow you, and what’s in it for them? You need to answer this question, and them means the people within your social media community. It’s crucial to wear their hats and build content which excites, engages, and motivates your audience. Know your audience’s needs, and be the source they go to get information and content. This takes me back to the top rule, always have fun and mix it up!
