Showing posts with label B2B. Show all posts
Showing posts with label B2B. Show all posts

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Crucial Social Media Strategy For YOUR Brand?


Strategic social media is essential for driving B2B sales..

Business-to-business (B2B) marketers are often faced with the challenge of communicating the benefits of complex, multifaceted systems to a range of customers and prospects..



How are these systems best positioned in front of their potential customers? In the age of digital, how do B2B marketers keep up in ways that truly engage?

The perception is often that social media is a straightforward dialogue. It falls under the purview of consumers that social media, the domain of selfies and memes, is not serious enough to be effective for B2B marketing. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

We recently partnered with Researchscape to survey more than 500 decision maker executives of mid- and large-size companies across industries to understand how they assess B2B vendors, consume media and are influenced by marketing channels.



Your Prospects Are On Social Media

In our findings, most senior executives use social media for business purposes.

In fact, 83% of executives use social media in their decision-making, and 92% of that segment says that social media influenced a purchasing decision within the last year, according to our research.

According to the Content Marketing Institute's 2017 report, 83% of B2B marketers say that social media is the tactic their organizations use most. In fact, we found that they use social more than any other channel on a daily basis. Social media leads to heightened brand awareness, but we found that brand awareness isn’t the only impact of a social media campaign. It is also one of the most effective marketing channels during the vendor selection process. Only industry analysts and web search ranked higher than social media when survey respondents were asked to name the marketing channels that impacted a recent purchasing decision. In other words, it's safe to say that social media is making a direct impact on B2B sales.



So, which specific social media channels are impacting these sales?

First of all, Facebook is a top-ranking factor. It’s not just for consumer play and it’s as important as advertising on Google. Our research has found that B2B decision makers spend a lot of time on Facebook for professional reasons and are influenced by the information they find on this platform.

LinkedIn is just as influential as Facebook among certain segments, so it’s a worthwhile investment to incorporate into your social media efforts.

Twitter is important as well, but it should be prioritized below Facebook and LinkedIn. With the exception of some rare circumstances, Snapchat is not an effective platform for B2B marketing.



Use Social Media To Educate And Inform

Social media must be used strategically and consistently to be effective in influencing B2B sales. Because of the way social media and algorithm preferences are now structured, organic reach alone is not enough. Social media is a paid platform -- to get the most out of it, your budget must be applied thoughtfully.

Start by establishing a Facebook page and maintaining a consistent presence by sharing a variety of content, including webinars, videos, articles, infographics and such that speak to the business challenges of your prospects. Use sponsored posts to elevate a strong piece of content and use Facebook ads and their targeting capabilities to attract new prospects to your community. The key, as is the case with much of B2B marketing, is to use social media as a way to deliver engaging content, not as an exclusive mouthpiece for your product and service demos.



This doesn’t mean that advertising on Facebook will automatically result in a direct click and sale, especially for enterprise sales.

It’s unrealistic to judge a social media marketing campaign based on how many executives buy a $500,000 annual license based on the fact that they clicked an ad, just as one wouldn’t judge the success of an investment in a trade show booth by the number of sales made on the show floor.

It’s important to underscore that the B2B sales environment is complex and nonlinear since there are several decision makers that need to be engaged at various points in a sales cycle if a sale is to be made. This means that there are multiple touch points that need to be maintained.

We know that Facebook is a critical one because executives who responded to our survey said that the social network influences their decisions when considering vendors.



Being included as a vendor in a request for proposal (RFP) or in the vendor selection process is not a simple endeavor.

To be successful, you must consistently engage these decision makers with targeted thought leadership. It requires a concerted marketing effort, using a marketing mix that’s going to reach the right people in the right ways.

B2B marketers are taking note of the need for digital content and social media and improving their efforts -- in fact, 62% stated their content marketing has been at least somewhat, if not much more, successful than it was just a year ago. And no matter how you structure your marketing, social media must be part of the mix if you’re going to optimize your digital marketing to drive sales.

Guest Authored By Elliot Schimel. Elliot is the CEO of Mission Control Marketing, a true agency partner to the CMO at a mid-sized company. Follow Elliot on Twitter.





"It’s way past time for social media to grow up and become a mature marketing channel. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken a kick in the pants from the social networks to make many realize that (if they have at all).

But those who see the shifts as an opportunity to shine, rather than an obstacle to gripe about, will probably end up reaping better benefits from social media than they ever have before.." -MarkTraphagen


    • Post Crafted by:
      Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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    Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

    Friday, February 23, 2018

    Who Dominates Social Media In 2018?


    4 Industries That Will Dominate Social Media in 2018..

    All it takes is the right mix of attention, commitment and effort..



    Once seen as purely a tool for entertainment, social media has become an indispensable marketing tool for many industries over the past few years, rivaled only by word of mouth.

    According to a first-quarter-2017 report by 4C Insights, overall social media spend was up 60 percent compared with a similar period the previous year. CMO Survey predicted a 17 percent annual compound growth rate from 2016 through 2021 for social media spend. It estimates that the social media advertising investment will represent 25 percent of total online spend in 2018.

    Yet, there are some who are not convinced that social media can generate revenue. Clearly, the success hasn’t been uniform across all industries—some are raking in billions of dollars, while some are barely active. But based on the recent trends, we’re likely to see more social media activity from some traditionally inactive industries.


    Hospitality

     Much like social media, the hospitality industry is a dynamic sector characterized by constant shifts and evolution. Its adoption of technology over the past couple of years has only added to the rapid change.

    When it comes to social media, however, the industry’s usage is still in its infancy. We’re just now seeing prominent brands starting to utilize it to their advantage as they integrate marketing with services, such as bookings, into social media channels.

    As chefs encourage their customers to post photos of their food on social media and reviews continue to influence buying decisions, mobile pay transactions are taking center stage in the industry. Reports show that 43 percent of restaurants will be adopting mobile pay by the end of the year. The mobile pay industry is expected to hit the trillion-dollar mark in a few years, meaning that hospitality will have no choice but to be part of it.


    In order to quickly adapt to such changes and ensure their effective implementation, the industry needs to first catch up with the new ways of communication—social media being the dominant one.

    As they try to learn about the behaviors and expectations of their tech-savvy customers, these companies will rely on social media.




    Although most of the business-to-business world has been embracing social media, manufacturing has been lagging. This has been mostly due to the accepted assumption that the average customer doesn’t spend enough time on social media. But that’s in the past, and manufacturers have realized it.

    “Now, most manufacturing companies have some kind of presence on social media,” says Raymond Sam of GearScope. “According to an annual report by the Content Marketing Institute, the average number of social media platforms used by manufacturing companies is five, and most manufacturers prefer the big five platforms in this order: YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+. On the question of the most preferred paid content promotion methods, 85 percent of marketers say their organization uses social promotion.”




    Whether it’s educating customers, boosting brand awareness, enhancing B2B relationships or sourcing customer feedback, manufacturers can benefit from social media in many aspects of their businesses.

    Emphasizing the importance of making use of social media, Michael Del Gigante, president of MDG Advertising, says, “Manufacturers have been slow to integrate social media into their marketing strategies, but it’s an essential tool for content promotion and lead generation.

    Manufacturers that don’t embrace it will find themselves falling behind their social-media-savvy competitors.”


    Pharma

    You can’t talk about compliance issues hindering the adoption of social media without mentioning pharma.

    While the communication lines of pharma are highly regulated, the number of pharmaceutical companies using social media to reach and engage with their consumers, potential hires and other healthcare professionals has been steadily increasing

    How’s pharma navigating the big world of social media? Lux Narayan, co-founder and CEO of Unmetric, tells Forbes of the “four-silo” approach pharmaceutical companies have taken to ensure that they reap the most from social media.

    When conducting research for its report, Unmetric found that pharma has organized itself into four areas to boost its social media presence:

    --Corporate social profiles that typically talk about the company history, overview, and staff.
    --Careers in pharma.
    --Over-the-counter branded pages, discussing products.
    --Community pages, discussing diseases without mentioning drugs (unlike the branded pages).



    As patients get used to going online to find treatment recommendations, emotional support and general engagement with their peers, the industry will need to gear up its efforts on social media to stay connected to its consumers.

    Finance

    The finance industry is heavily regulated. The compliance issues alone have been enough to make would-be social media users in the industry think twice about testing the platform for marketing.

    Speaking to Hootsuite, financial services expert Amy McIlwain said, “In addition to compliance, one of the reasons financial advisors initially held back was the belief that their clients––baby boomers and seniors––were not on social media.” She went on to say that the situation has changed with baby boomers flocking to platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. She continued, “LinkedIn reported in 2014 that more than 5 million high-net-worth people in North America were likely to use social media to assist with financial decision-making.”


    Another important currency in finance is trust.

    When money-in-motion events such as job change, retirement or graduation occur, customers look for trustworthy financial advisors. To build this trust and ensure that they remain on the minds of their customers, financial institutions will have to turn to social media.
    To reach its audience, which now includes avocado-toast-consuming millennials, the finance sector will need to get on with the times and start using social media.

    Industries such as tech, fashion, real estate, retail and marketing have shown that all it takes to see success with social media is the right mix of attention, commitment and effort—and, yes, a budget, too.

    Guest Authored By James Jorner. James is a content strategist and marketer at Effective Inbound Marketing. His company specializes in online branding and digital marketing for businesses. Follow James on Twitter.

    "With promises of further advancements in technology, faster Internet speeds and generally better connectivity in 2018, social media is likely to be embraced by more brands across many industries.

    No matter how much success they’re having with other platforms, most industries are quickly realizing that social media is no longer optional.

    It’s now an important part of the overall business development
    strategy.." -JamesJorner
    • Authored by:
      Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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    Tuesday, November 21, 2017

    How Social Media Fits Into YOUR Hiring Plan?


    I’ve said it countless times: Meet your audience on their platform of choice. We’re no stranger to this tactic in the world of PR, digital and social media marketing agencies..

    You use social media for business strategies, but are you making the most of this cost-effective tool in your hiring process?



    How Social Fits Into Your Hiring Plan

    At my company, we’ve expanded this theory above and beyond consumer and B2B marketing and into the world of social recruiting.

    Businesses know that millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, and social recruiting uses digital platforms to meet future employees where they are: online.

    A candidate’s digital presence serves to supplement a resume, but that’s just the beginning of how social media can reshape your hiring plan.

    Social platforms essentially facilitate conversations, be it between individuals or brands and consumers. When qualified candidates are in the final rounds of consideration, social media can serve to show which ones are already contributing to digital conversations.



    What To Look For In A Social Profile

    Common sense keeps most candidates from posting questionable content on their public profiles, but that’s just the basics. Identifying skilled candidates means recognizing potential. Are they retweeting articles by industry thought leaders? Do they have LinkedIn endorsements for skills that can add to your agency’s capabilities? What type of content are they resharing or interacting with?

    A designer’s Instagram may serve as an unofficial portfolio while an account exec’s blog posts may showcase their aptitude for branded content creation. In many cases, personal profiles show a distinct voice, visual identity or overall brand. A sense of awareness is a sign of emotional intelligence, which is on every recruiter’s radar.

    While a social media profile doesn’t need to be sterile or professionally branded, it should convey a sense of that candidate’s relationship with social media. Someone who is passionately plugged-in can bring that curiosity and drive to their work. And, on the other hand, for those who display highly negative or concerning behavior on social media, you should be mindful of how they would fit in with your culture.



    Make The First Move

    Your agency can strategically reach out through social channels for cost-efficient results, from directly engaging with passive candidates via LinkedIn to targeting the ideal applicant with Facebook ads. By customizing an ad’s audience on Facebook or Instagram, you can boost messaging to reach a finite demographic.

    For example, if you are using social advertisements to recruit for an entry-level position, your agency can pay to target ads to recent graduates as opposed to an experienced audience or passive candidates. You then effectively spend less while reaching more realistic candidates. By targeting likely candidates online, agencies can stretch ad spend while increasing efficiency.

    It’s a unique advantage for both the candidate and the employer to connect organically online. Savvy job seekers know to use their public social media platforms as a tool to share their skills; it’s up to your hiring team to identify these standout candidates.

    Guest Authored By Kelly Ehlers. Kelly is Founder and President of Ideas That Evoke. An influencer and social media agency focused in the beauty, lifestyle and luxury markets. Follow Kelly on Twitter.




    “It’s a unique advantage for both the candidate and the employer to connect organically online.

    Savvy job seekers know to use their public social media platforms as a tool to share their skills; it’s up to your hiring team to identify these standout candidates.."


      • Authored by:
        Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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      Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA
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