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Social Media Marketing can get overwhelming if you're not a little (okay, a lot) obsessed with social media and the latest trends. You know the people we're referring to: the people who get the latest news via Twitter, find recipes on Facebook and love Instagram and Snap Chat. They know all the latest and greatest when it comes to interesting platforms and having a conversation with them typically means text messages, acronyms and emojis.
There is good news though, you don't have to be one of these people to master social media marketing, you just have to have a good game plan, particularly when it comes to B2B marketing. For example, NASA (yes, that NASA) actually manages more than 500 social media accounts, which as you can imagine, is no easy feat. Social Media platforms vary greatly, from the quick and lightening-fast pace of Twitter to the in-depth, informative white papers of LinkedIn. To run over 500 accounts means expert understanding and a clear explanation of your brand.
So if NASA can manage 500 pages, you can manage your companies' B2B marketing. It's all about following a strategy, so let's get started today. The most important part of successfully managing your platforms is to ensure that you have clear and concise brand messaging at every opportunity. But, how do you determine what brand messaging you should be using?
In order to create a strong brand message, you'll need to ensure that you fully understand your business and brand. This doesn't mean being able to seamlessly grasp your profit and margins, here we are talking strictly about brand personality. Every business, just like every person, is different. You need to make your brand personable and trustworthy to your target audience. When they are reading your posts, they should feel as though they're speaking to a friend, colleague or potentially even a mentor that they trust. By doing so, you're opening the door to communication and encouraging interaction with your followers. To simply update your pages regularly is not enough, you need to build a relationship with your followers at every opportunity.
For example: If you are selling life insurance to other companies, you'll need to ensure that your messaging is strictly professional, informative and gives your audience the understanding that you are an expert in the field. It is also essential that your messaging encourages your audience to ask questions and entices them to learn more about your business.
Creating A Successful Brand Voice
Here are some simple steps to follow:
1. Understand your goals. Ask yourself, what is it that I want to achieve by creating this content? Perhaps you want someone to click to learn more, read a blog post or enquire directly about your services. Each Call To Action will likely utilize a different tone of voice.
2. Understand your customer. This sounds tricky, but it can be broken down quite simply by understanding what it is that makes people take action. For example, if you want someone to donate money to a cause, then you'll need to tug at their heartstrings. If you want someone to read a blog about the latest fashions, then you need to make them feel as though you are on the cutting edge. It's all about understanding what makes your customer tick. Once you have a clear idea of your customer, then it's easier to create a brand voice that will get you the results you want.
Now that you understand how to create a brand message that will take your business to the next level, let's go ahead and take your content there too.
A Multi-Chanel Story
As we mentioned earlier, what works on Twitter won't work on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram etc. Each social media platform is unique and as such, the way you tell your story will need to be unique as well.
Think of it this way: you may post a fantastic blog on LinkedIn, but it probably won't work if you post that same blog on Facebook. So instead, find an engaging quote or call to action and related photo and post that with a link to the blog. This allows you to get the most value out of your content and doesn't require you to come up with an entirely different topic, just a different way of presenting the topic.
Your Content Is For Your Customers
This is essential to learn. Your content is not for you. It's not really about what you find interesting or what you like, in fact it's not at all about what you like. It's about what your customers need. Once you understand that, you are golden.
Ask yourself, does my content involve my customers? Am I providing them with helpful information? Am I engaging them? Just because you want to sell a particular product does not mean your customers want to read about that product. Instead, you'll need to find a way to mention it within content that your customers actually do want to read about.
Looking for great ideas to get your customers more involved with your content? We've got you covered:
- Feature a testimonial
- Develop a case study
- Create a competition
- Offer a free trial
- Feature guest posts
By adding any of the above to your social media posts, you'll instantly be adding more weight to them. Testimonials and guest posts make customers trust your business more while case studies make you appear as though you are an industry expert and competitions create a sense of excitement for your customers.
Always remember to feature a clear brand message and voice, write compelling content for your customers and feature unique and helpful extras when you can to build a long-lasting relationship with your target audience. Your analytics will skyrocket before you know it.
In the end, do us a little favor and share this article with others, for there’s a good chance that it will help them with their content marketing.