If you observe the modern day traits in industrial online marketing, and maybe even if you don’t, you are possibly listening to masses of buzz about social media. Marketing specialists throughout the world are praising social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as the reply to all of our advertising prayers.
So, what are social media marketing and need to you jump on the bandwagon? In this blog post, my intention is to separate the hype from the helpful in social media marketing so you can discern out if your enterprise needs to dive in and integrate social media into your B2B advertising mix. And if you figure out to take the plunge, I will grant you with the secret to social media marketing success.
WHAT IS B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?
Social media marketing entails leveraging social networking Websites, like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, to share applicable and fascinating social media content material with your community of fans, followers and connections. Social media advertising campaigns usually a focal point on creating compelling content material that attracts interest and encourages readers to share it with their social networks.
An easy way to understand social media marketing is to assume of it as public relations. However, rather of pitching the media, you are pitching your peers. By sharing beneficial and relevant content material with contributors of your network, your message can reap a high-quality reach as your community shares your content with contributors of their networks, who share it with individuals of their networks, and so on, and so on and so on.
THE SECRET TO SUCCESS: YOU NEED TO BECOME A CONTENT MARKETER
The secret to success in social media advertising is to give up marketing your products and services. You need to quit questioning you are solely in the commercial enterprise of selling products and services. You are also in the commercial enterprise of knowledge. You want to market your specialized information to display to possibilities and clients that you are the specialist in your field. In other words, you need to emerge as a content marketer.
Content advertising includes creating and distributing applicable and treasured content to attract, acquire, and interact without a doubt described goal audiences with the aim of user action. Content marketing needs to serve as the cornerstone of your social media marketing approach – developing academic objects that are regarded as interesting, relevant and useful by means of your prospects and customers. The following social media have to serve as your content advertising backbone:
- Articles: Articles are a super content advertising tool. By creating 500- to 1,000-word educational articles that exhibit a first-class practice, you can exhibit your understanding and exhibit to your clients that you understand their needs.
- Blog Posts: Blog posts are insightful and well-timed Web content highlighting vital insights, enterprise news, observations, and other useful content. Readers of your blog posts are encouraged to share their remarks permitting for a two-way dialogue. Your blog ought to be up to date commonly with at least one new put up per week or month. Blog posts provide a terrific chance to hold your Website content material modern and relevant.
- Presentations: PowerPoint or comparable software can be used to create academic shows that are oriented toward a particular industry challenge, first-class practice or training topic. These displays can be 5 to 50 pages in size – whatever it takes to make your point.
- Whitepapers: Whitepapers are topical, educational reports or courses that are oriented toward a precise enterprise challenge, opportunity or satisfactory practice. Generally, whitepapers are 8 to 15 pages in length and can honestly help you show thinking management on problems that are important to your customers.
- E-Books: E-Books are like whitepapers on steroids. They usually range from 20 to 50 pages and current complicated data in a compelling and entertaining way.
- Videos: If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million. Use online video to reveal a product, illustrate the first-class practice, permit customers to see your organization in the back of the scenes, etc. Online videos do no longer have to be professionally produced – a simple Flip camera will work well. The key is to film content material your customers will discover useful and actionable.
- Webinars: A Webinar is a seminar that is carried out over the Web that contributors can effortlessly view from their workplace or home – both stay or on-demand. Most Webinars consist of a visible slide presentation, as well as an audio broadcast that is accessed both over the computer or phone. Generally, Webinars are 30 to 90 minutes in size and can include an interactive element to respond to attendee questions.
- Podcasts: Podcasts are audio content that human beings can pay attention to on your Website or download and pay attention to on their MP3 devices, like iPods. Podcasts are effortless to produce and grant an possibility for you to talk at once to your audiences and share your knowledge.
Your Website ought to serve as the hub of your content advertising efforts. Create splendid content material in a variety of social media formats and continuously submit them on your Website. Then use your networks on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to unfold the word.
