Keeping the “Social” in Social Media
Posted by JasonB on January 8, 2010
There are endless outlets available that allow you to quickly publish your content and network with other businesses. B2B Companies are increasingly using social media to generate leads because it is a fast, and cost effective way, to advertise news, events, products, and facts, but if you’re not engaging your audience, what are you really getting out of it? How do you keep your target market involved? Through conversation.
*Do your blogs allow readers to comment? Then make sure you’re responding to them.
-Engaging your target market and customers in two-way communication gives you an opportunity to listen to what they need. Don’t treat your blog as a platform for one-way communication.
*Do you reply to tweets?
- Keep an eye out on Twitter – recognize people that tweet about your business.
- Ask questions and encourage people to reply. This will establish a ground for two-way communication and is an excellent source for B2B lead generation. If you’ve done a good job keeping your target market involved, when you tweet about your products and services, you are reaching a significantly larger and more interested audience. Companies who only post messages pushing a product are easily forgotten.
*You’ve worked so hard to build your Facebook fan base, now what do you do with them?
- Create a special offer that is only available for your Facebook fans. Include an easy opportunity for them to share the invitation with their friends (i.e. “Invite your friends to become a member of the fan page and you both will be entered in a drawing for ‘Xprize’ .“)
- Allow your fans to post photos of something that relates to your business.
- As with Twitter, ask questions in your status updates and let your fans respond.
*Do you answer “Questions” on LinkedIn?- LinkedIn provides a question and answer section for professional to give and take advice from each other. Don’t just watch what’s going on, PARTICIPATE!
- If someone asks a question about a subject pertaining to your field, you can answer and potentially create a new B2B relationship with that company.
*Do you utilize the popularity of YouTube?
- Post videos and allow viewers to comment on them. This will once again, give you an opportunity to listen to what your target markets are saying and lead to a potential B2B relationship.- Watch your competitors’ videos. You’ll get to see what they’re doing right and how people are responding to their message.
- Keep it interesting. Businesses who find way to keep their social media interesting develop a much larger and more engaged following.
As we’ve said, 2010 is going to be an important year in Social Media. If you’ve not already begun to revamp your tactics, now is the time to start. If you haven’t implemented any tactics at all, it may be time to call for help from a company that can focus on getting you back on track.
