B2B Social Media: Can B2C Social Media work for B2B

In last week’s blog post, I discussed how you can use Google+ and Blogger help you engage your B2B audience with social media. This week, I’m covering Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook for B2B

As in previous posts about the use of social media in B2B, I’ll cover what works and what doesn't.

In this post, you’ll find information to help you assess the value of using these two platforms.

Both have advantages and disadvantages.  Let’s get into it.

What Facebook Can Do for B2B Marketers

For starters, Facebook is the 800-lb. gorilla in social media. Let me qualify that – for B2C. For B2B, Facebook ranks behind LinkedIn. If you recall, Facebook got its start as a consumer platform. Meanwhile, LinkedIn’s focus began and remains business-focused.

But as Facebook evolves, it’s developing more features that cater to B2B marketers. 

Facebook – What Works and What Needs Improvement

More and more B2B companies use Facebook as part of their social media mix. That supports the fact that Facebook does some things better than others. Here are some things B2Ccompanies use Facebook for:

• Branding
• Building Relationships
• Creating Conversations
• Cross-promoting Content
• Developing Communities
• Nurturing Leads

You may have noticed all of these reflect a social influence at which Facebook excels. Using Facebook helps humanize your company.

Noticeably absent is lead generation.  I’m not saying you can’t generate leads with Facebook.  You can and some B2B companies focus on generating leads with Facebook.

It’s interesting to note 3B2B companies are among the Top 10 Facebook pages: of them are B2B companies: (1) Honeywell at #1; (2) Ingram Micro at #7; and (3) Oracle at #9.

B2B Companies Successfully Using Facebook

Again, no one doubts the value of Facebook in the B2C world. But many B2B companies seem to have successfully adapted Facebook to their business. One stand-out I wrote about in a previous post is Maersk.  

The interesting point about Maersk is that it explicitly decided not to generate leads with Facebook. As a result they’ve developed an extremely social-friendly community.

It has a variety of content, including print, photos, video and audio. Their number of likes as well as their high-level of engagement prove the success of their strategy.

Other prominent B2B business that have excellent Facebook pages are:

Cisco	Caterpillar	DHL
FEDEX	Google	Hubspot
Intel	HP	Maersk
Old Dominion Freight Line	SAP	UPS

When looking at these B2B company pages, you’ll find, vivid colors, photos, videos, and interesting, informative and entertaining content. All of this fosters engagement.

Facebook recognizes its strengths and weaknesses in B2B. One example of this is Facebook’s blog, Facebook for Business, focused on helping the small business grow.

All in all, Facebook offers B2B businesses a compelling reason to use Facebook as part of their social media mix. Its size, its premier status as a social network, and its growing emphasis on B2B make Facebook a media platform B2B marketers can’t ignore.

Next, we’ll explore a popular micro social media site, and assess its value to B2B businesses.

Twitter - the Microblogging Social Media Platform

Twitter for B2B

Twitter is a different kind of social media site. It’s ca microblogging site because it limits “tweets” to 140 characters. Anything you have to say has to be short and to the point!

It also limits what you can do – at last on Twitter.

This site is great for getting the word out quickly. And, if you have a sizable following, your reach is wide.

Here are some of Twitter’s strengths. Its versatility makes this a powerful tool to consider.

·         Branding

·         Customer Service

·         Promotional Announcements

·         Researching Competitors

·         Social Networking

As with all social media, Twitter’s success depends on quality content. And consistency in tweeting is more important than quantity of tweets.

The content of your tweets can run the gamut from sharing native content to curated content, offering discounts, and creating # chats. The latter is an easy way to develop a following behind an issue. Use of keywords will help widen your audience and build your community.

Use Twitter to Drive Traffic

Using Twitter is also a good way to complement your website, blog and other social media sites. With a brief tweet you can drive traffic to your other online sites where prospects and customer can find more detailed content.

To inform businesses about the value of its microblog, Twitter cites a number of compelling statistics. This infographic shows small business owners that socially engaged customers tend to drive sales and buy more.

Do B2B companies use Twitter?

YES!  The 12 B2B companies listed above that use Facebook also use Twitter.

Of course more than twelve B2B companies use Twitter. In viewing these 12 sites, you can see the power of Twitter in driving traffic and engaging followers with useful content.

If you want to grow your business, then you would be advised to think about adding Twitter to your social media marketing mix.

B2B Social Media Trends for Facebook and Twitter

Both have sizable followings geared mainly towards consumer-oriented social networking. That market is relatively saturated. Future growth depends on making efforts to expand by offering more to B2B marketers.

Both social media sites are strong in social networking, two-way communication, and branding. Although some companies do employ lead generation tactics, this is an area for future growth.

As technology matures, more easy-to-use tools for lead generation will likely be developed. Clearly, LinkedIn is the leader among social media sites, but Facebook and Twitter won’t concede the future.

Conclusion

Choices, choices, and more choices.  What’s a B2B marketer to do?

It really comes down to one thing: identify your purpose for using social media.

Some B2B businesses use all social media available. Some use a select few.  And others don’t engage socially at all. [Although those numbers are declining.]

It seems the best approach entails selecting a mix of social media because no one site does everything. So, peel back the onion and determine “why” you need to use social media.  Then, and only then, choose the appropriate mix that best suits your needs.

By the way… they should closely match your customers’ needs.

That wraps up another post. I'd like to hear from you about how your company uses Facebook or Twitter. If you have any questions, let me know.

Enjoy the week ahead!

Alex Milo

B2B Copywriter and Consultant

“Helping Transportation and Logistics Companies Generate Leads with Compelling Content”

Phone: 256-886-4684
Email: amilo@b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com

LinkedIn

Google+

www.b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com

B2B Social Media: What Google+ (and Blogger) Can Do For You

Last month we explored how LinkedIn can help you exploit social media. This week, I’m covering Google+.

Google+ for Business

Remember, each social media platform has its strengths and weaknesses. And adopting every platform is neither practical nor advisable.

The main point you should consider is whether a particular platform or combination of platforms works for you.

Without further ado, let’s look at what Google+ offers your business.

Why B2B Marketers Should Consider Google+

B2B marketers have a tough job. You need to nurture and generate leads, increase website visibility, build brand, promote new products, services, and events, and develop thought leadership. Oh… and create buzz.

There are lots of social media platforms to choose from. So why pick Google+?

As you’ll discover, Google+ has many practical and easy-to-use features. Its usage is growing and so are its capabilities. [Google’s vaunted R&D constantly looks at how to improve its products.]

That said, Google+ offers B2B marketers the social media tools they need to do their jobs effectively and efficiently. Specifically, I’ll focus on Circles, Hangouts, and SEO – all features designed to enhance the promotion of your business.

Google+ Circles – Targeted Updates to Selected Audiences

One of the keys to effective marketing is effective messaging. You achieve that by aligning your message to a particular audience. Do that and you’ll improve your marketing ROI and engagement.

Google+ has a useful feature that allows you to create “Circles” or groups of individuals with a common interest. For example, prospects could make up one circle and existing customers another.

Google+ Circles allow you to tailor your message to your audience. For a message that targets prospects, only those in your "prospects" circle would see your post. Similarly, a message meant for existing customers would only be seen by those in your "existing customers" circle.

As you build out your Circles, you’ll soon see your streams organized by the groups with which you interact. Also, you can add Google+ Circles to Gmail, giving you a handy distribution list.

Another nifty feature of Circles is the ability to create “Hangouts”.

Google+ Hangouts - Live Meetings

Hangouts gives your business a powerful, real-time capability to connect with employees, prospects, and customers. You can conduct online meetings, show videos, share maps, etc. with up to 10 people.

This is a valuable feature because it allows you to personalize your business in real-time. With Hangouts you can:

• Make last minute changes to plans.
• Connect with key customers to improve customer service.
• Develop deeper relationships, reinforcing off-line contact.
• Build your brand and announce special promotions and events.

Google+ Hangouts is versatile. You can join from your desktop or an Android or Apple device using a Hangouts app.

In the transportation and logistics industry, communication and collaboration are critical to success. Hangouts’ connectivity can easily take your business to the next level.

Google+ Search and SEO

Another beneficial feature of Google+ is its embedded search. As everyone knows, Google is the King of Search. And, not surprisingly, Google+ takes advantage of that.

Using Google+ search opens Google+ to you to keep abreast of trends, changes in your industry and what your competition’s doing.

Within Google+ search you can search for people, pages and posts. And it doesn't stop there. You can also search against Photos, Communities [more about that later], Events and Circles.

Now a word about boosting your findability on the web.

An equally powerful feature is what Google+ does for your company’s findability. As you build your presence on Google+, you obviously increase your findability.

You have many options to improve your SEO. Here are 7 things you can do immediately.

• Link Blogger to your Google+ page.
• Install a Google+ badge on your website.
• Link your Google+ page to your website.
• Link article bylines on your website to Google+.
• Increase social signals by posting more frequently.
• Increase social signals by growing your circles.
• Make more social comments and increase +1s of others’ posts.

Implement these steps to improve your overall findability.

Google affords you many ways to improve your findability using Google+ and Blogger. Use these to your advantage.

I've covered many benefits of Google+. Now it’s time to discuss Blogger.

Google’s Blogger – Competitive Work Horse

Blogger has been around for a long time, speaking in terms of social media. It remains a popular choice because of its ease of use and it’s also free. And Blogger hasn’t remained stagnant. New capabilities have been added and continue to be added.

It offers a fair amount of customization allowing for customizing your domain name. That works well for business blogging.

It's not as full-featured as WordPress, but you still have many options.

Here are the benefits you get with Blogger:

• Target-ability – Includes Pages to segment topics and labels (similar to hashtags).
• Reach – As expansive as the World Wide Web.
• Content variety – Easily accommodates all manner of content types.
• Thought leadership – Establish industry thought leadership with regular posting.
• Usage/Stickiness – No available stats, but this would be unique to each B2B blog.
• Google+ for Mobile – As Android devices flood the market, this feature will grow.

Most rankings of blogging platforms rank Blogger #3, just behind Word Press.com and WordPress.org. That’s respectable! However, when used with Google+, Blogger is tough to ignore.

B2B Social Media Trends for Google+ and Blogger

Google came late to social media but has made great strides. And Google continues to make great strides as it evolves. Google+ is a dynamic social media platform. Programmers constantly look for ways to make social media friendlier and easier to use.

Communities is one feature I didn't cover. But here people with similar interests gather to share their thoughts and ideas. It’s a great place to develop your business’s thought leadership and learn from your industry peers. And you’ll likely develop new relationships and add members to your Circles.

As sharing information becomes the norm, Communities stands to grow as its value to business gradually increases. Communities helps foster deeper relationships, which further binds the ties with prospects and customers. The integration with other Google products should also help its growth.

If your business can benefit from visual marketing, then Google+ has the answer. Another new feature - Collections - makes use of visual marketing similar to Pinterest. Here you post collections of videos and photos, organized by topic, to promote your business.

What’s next? I don’t know. But as you can see Google isn't yielding any ground on the social media front. It’s becoming a one-stop-shop for all things social.

Again, closer integration with Blogger and Google+ as well as other Google products are probably being planned.

Conclusion

Both Google+ and Blogger are potent on their own. However, when you combine them, you get a social media tool that’s even more powerful. 

You get what a B2B marketer needs. This combination offers you customization, flexibility, and variety. Used together, your content will be more effective because it’s tailored, visual, and entertaining. They make for a compelling social media strategy.

And don’t forget, prospects will find your content more easily. You’ll enjoy the enhanced search that comes with Google integration.

Google+ and Blogger aren't the top-rated social media platforms, but there isn't anything you need that both don’t provide.  Add to that Google’s drive to give you the best of breed, you’ll be hard-pressed not to consider this dynamic duo.

If you have any questions, as always you may contact me by phone or email. Comments? I’d like to know what you think. You can comment directly on my blog.

Here are some links for additional information about Google+.

https:// https://plus.google.com/

https://support.google.com/plus/?hl=en#topic=3049661

https://plus.google.com/communities

https://plus.google.com/collections

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/
Also, checkout this article on social media strategy: How to Craft an Effective Social Media Strategy

Thanks and have a great week!

Alex Milo

B2B Copywriter and Consultant

“Helping Transportation and Logistics Companies Generate Leads with Compelling Content”

Phone: 256-886-4684
Email: amilo@b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com

LinkedIn

Google+

www.b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com

B2B Social Media: Are You Exploiting Social Media Effectively?

The B2B Social Media Site Made for Business B2B Social Media Are you using the right social media platform(s) for B2B? Are you maximizing your use of social media to stay ahead of the competition? A growing number of B2B businesses have adopted social media. In fact, 88% of B2B marketers employ social media today. I’m sure you didn't jump on the social media bandwagon because everyone else is doing it. There are better reasons to engage socially.  Here are some of the main benefits that likely motivated your business to participate socially. SEO: Social media is highly searchable. Real time information: It’s fast – beneficial for time-pressed executives. Sticky: It can be extremely memorable and compelling… potentially viral. Entertainment: Given available graphic, audio, and video tools, social media promotes fun. There’s more, but these are among the main reasons businesses decide to get social. This month, I’ll pull back the curtain on social media platforms that work well with B2B. I’ll review: (1) LinkedIn and SlideShare; (2) Google+ and Blogger; (3) Twitter and Facebook; and (4) YouTube and Pinterest. Some of these seem to be ideally suited for B2B, whereas others seem more appropriate for B2C companies. I’ll drill down into each one showing you what they offer and how you can exploit them effectively.  Warning. Each platform has strengths and weaknesses. Adopting all of these isn't the answer. Engaging socially is one thing.  However, effective employment is another. Instead, you’ll want to understand what each one can do for your unique situation.  The real secret lies in finding the right mix. Today, we’ll look at LinkedIn and SlideShare. LinkedIn: Social Media Made for B2B  Alexa ranks LinkedIn as the 9th most popular site in the U.S. and 13th globally. More importantly, this site is a professional network linking business people worldwide. It bills itself as “the world’s largest professional network”. This site is made with businesses in mind. 83% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing. LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter. 87% of LinkedIn users trust the site's product-related information.   Social Media Tools for B2B Marketers LinkedIn has evolved into a premier publishing platform. B2B businesses can publish posts on their company pages and develop unique content using SlideShare. You can easily share your content with your network and your groups. Company Pages – Your Company’s Homepage on LinkedIn Everyone knows about LinkedIn’s personal pages and personal profiles. But businesses make their money on LinkedIn’s company pages.  You may not be aware, but Google lists company pages within the first 2 pages of its results. Wayne Breitbarth, a LinkedIn guru, says this is “free-money” for small- and mid-sized businesses. Here companies have something like a mini-website that builds their brand. Company pages list a business’s summary mission statement, size, company type, industry, and contact information. It’s your calling card. How popular are company pages? There are more than 4 million company pages and the number is growing. Additionally, companies can submit updates (similar to blog posts) to update visitors on any aspect of the business. Some businesses hit the bull’s eye with their company pages.  See what B2B companies like SAP, FEDEX, and Maersk do with their company pages. SlideShare – B2B Social Media Made Fast and Easy Another popular feature on LinkedIn is SlideShare. Previously, this ranked as one of the most popular websites, before being bought by LinkedIn in May 2012. As its name implies, businesses share content with slides. They make it easy for you as SlideShare integrates seamlessly with LinkedIn. It’s a content publishing and sharing platform rolled into one. Available to you are the all the members in your network, including those in groups you’ve joined. Beyond that, thanks to SlideShare’s share-ability, your content can go viral. Here are the benefits you get with LinkedIn and SlideShare: Target-ability – Easily zero in on the “right” audience.                     Reach – Virtually unlimited – over 200 countries and territories. SEO – Boost your find-ability on LinkedIn and accelerate your online growth. Effectiveness – 77% of B2B marketers have acquired a customer through LinkedIn. Content variety – LinkedIn has it all: Long-form; short-form; audio; video; infographic. Thought leadership – Readily promote thought leadership within your industry. Usage/Stickiness – The average visitor spends 17 minutes/month on LinkedIn. LinkedIn for Mobile – 45% of users access LinkedIn using mobile devices. The bottom line is that LinkedIn is a feature-rich social media platform that caters to B2B businesses. Its versatility, ease of use and speed make this a winner. Organic Advertising that Boosts Your Social Media Presence  LinkedIn is a versatile B2B social media site that offers advertising as well as marketing solutions. Similar to Google AdWords, LinkedIn features “Sponsored Updates”. It follows basically the same rules and parameters as AdWords campaigns.  As you publish company updates, those will be viewed by your professional network. Sponsored updates gives your posts added juice. Now your ads will go beyond your immediate network.  And LinkedIn’s superior targeting features extend your reach to a “target-rich” environment. Sponsored updates also comes with a set of useful analytics. You can easily fine tune your ads to improve your ROI. This B2B social media site has best of breed online tools businesses need to compete and thrive in the B2B space. LinkedIn’s organic advertising is the perfect complement to its content publishing platform. LinkedIn’s Trends for B2B Social Media Hands down, LinkedIn is the B2B business person’s favorite site to connect and do business. Despite other sites attempting to make inroads in the business space, LinkedIn will continue to dominate in B2B social media. Both the number of users and time spent on LinkedIn continue to grow.  It remains popular for generating leads: 93% of marketers say LinkedIn is most effective for B2B lead generation. According to Wayne Breitbarth, company page usage increased from 24% to 57%. Another interesting and compelling fact is that Google uses LinkedIn. Google has 3.2 million followers and over 59,000 employees on LinkedIn. That’s an endorsement that bodes well for its future. But before wrapping up, let’s see what users think about LinkedIn. Seventy percent of users give LinkedIn high marks – a 4 or 5 with 5 being the highest rating. They cite connecting with C-level executives among one greatest advantages.  If you’re trying to build your business, expand it, and increase sales and revenues, then networking with senior executives is critical. And LinkedIn clearly delivers on that. Conclusion It’s no wonder almost 90% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn. This social media site is made for B2B businesses. It has a superb content publishing platform and a superior content distribution tool. Add to that effective organic advertising, and you a powerful social media tool. This the preferred B2B social media site, bar none. The only question you need to ask yourself is whether you're exploiting social media effectively. It starts with getting the right mix of social media platforms. Is LinkedIn is a key part of your social media marketing mix? If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by phone or by email. Comments? Let me know what you think by commenting directly on my blog. Thanks and have a great week! Alex Milo B2B Copywriter and Consultant “Helping Transportation and Logistics Companies Generate Leads with Compelling Content” Phone: 256-886-4684 LinkedIn Google+ www.b2bcopywriting-alexmilo.com P.S. Next week, we'll explore Google+ and Blogger.