Our 5 Social Media Marketing Tips For Businesses

Social media marketing is a HUGE opportunity for any business to connect with customers, grow brand awareness, and drive sales.

But maintaining social media platforms can be a challenge for business owners that wear multiple hats throughout the day. A lack of time and resources to dedicate to B2B social media marketing is a major hurdle that many business owners face… and as a result, any plans to keep the company’s social media updated often fall by the wayside.

We understand that many roadblocks can get in the way of achieving your marketing goals. That’s why we’re super excited to share our top 5 (proven) Social Media Marketing strategies that you can try today to help drive real business results!

 

 

Tip #1: Know Your Competition

90% of brands are using social media to build their brand awareness and engage with their customers online. So, chances are, your competitors are active on at least one social media platform. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, though!

Having competitors who target the same audience as you do is great because you can check what worked for them and what didn’t. Then, you can use this knowledge to adjust your own strategy as needed.

One way to get ahead of your competitors is to conduct a social media competitive analysis. This involves:

• Identifying which of your competitors are on social media (and on which platforms)
• Reviewing each platform’s follower count and overall engagement
• Benchmarking your own analytics against competitors
• Identifying potential gaps in your own B2B social media marketing strategy

This can be time-consuming and is an ongoing process; the digital landscape is constantly changing and businesses continuously adjust their strategies to adapt. Set a calendar reminder for yourself monthly to go over your competitors’ social media performance to see if there are any additional insights you can use to boost your own effectiveness.

Or you can save time by letting marketing experts review your and your competitors’ social media strategies and offer suggestions for future improvement. We offer a FREE 6-point social media analysis to help you maximize your company’s social presence.

 

Tip #2: Pick the Right Social Channel to Target

There are a lot of social media channels out there, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be on all of them. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start out by signing up for one or two platforms that your audience is most likely to use.

For example, business-to-business (B2B) companies typically focus their attention on LinkedIn because it’s a great way to connect directly with fellow professionals. On the flipside, business-to-consumer (B2C) brands may find better luck creating a business page on Facebook to interact with their audience.

Businesses can choose from a variety of options to target their audience including professional pages, paid post promotion, and native advertising. It also helps that Facebook is the biggest social media platform worldwide with 2.7 BILLION monthly active users.

And let’s not forget about Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, TikTok… So, you’ll need to experiment to find which channel your audience prefers. Keep in mind too that this may change over time.

If you want to engage your audience, you could also consider creating a survey and asking your customers which social media channels they prefer or use the most. If you’re already active on social media channels, check their efficiency. Compare the size of your audience across different channels, your engagement, and engagement rate metrics.

 

Tip #3: Simplify B2B Content Creation

Creating B2B social media content does take time. But having the right tools at hand can save you more time than you might think.

Photos and videos you take on your phone can be easily processed with free tools like Canva and VSCO right from your mobile device.

You can also use paid tools to help you with scheduling and posting your content across different social networks. Here are just a few we recommend:

• Buffer
• Sprout Social
• SEMrush Poster
• Loomly

To find hashtags, use RiteTag— an absolute must-have for any B2B social media manager! It gives you tag suggestions for images or text on any site or social network, and all it takes is a right click on the image or text.

Have you ever heard about the 80/20 rule or Pareto principle? Apply this rule to the time you invest in social media. Plan 80% of content in advance, and spend the other 20% on live conversations with your audience.

 

 

Tip #4: Automate Your Social Posting

If you don’t make an effort to automate your posting routine, you’ll never have the time to focus on the essential things that can truly help your business. If you manage several social networks at once, consider tools like Hootsuite and ContentCal. Instead of switching between multiple tabs to post your content in each individual network, you can schedule content for all your social profiles from one tab and create a personalized posting schedule.

However, it’s important to make note of what you’re posting on each platform. When you automate your posts, it’s easy to simply post the same content across all platforms and go on with your day.

But this isn’t the best way to engage with your audience. Why? Because each social media platform has slightly different target audiences. Would you share the exact same content with a small business owner as you would with a stay-at-home parent? Hopefully, you answered, “of course I wouldn’t.”

Follow this logic when drafting your posts. If the information you’re sharing is more business-centric (like how to connect with your customers through engaging Social Media Marketing), this would most likely pique your LinkedIn followers’ interest the most. On the flip side, if you’re wanting to share a fun article about things to do in Philadelphia, this would be better suited for Facebook or Twitter.

 

Tip #5: Engage Your Audience on Social

There are two sides to this. The first one is about monitoring your online mentions across the web and responding to them. The other is about not forgetting to respond to your followers’ messages on social media. Both are crucial if you want your business to succeed. So, how do you manage both?

Social media monitoring tools such as Mention.com or Brand24.com allow you to track and categorize your online mentions, find influencers, and identify new promotional opportunities.

People will talk about your brand across the web. They will either be happy with their experience with your business, or they’ll be disappointed. You have to respond to both types of feedback, whether it be a positive review or a total diss.

Responding to negative feedback in a diplomatic, professional way can be challenging. But it’s necessary since 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. If you leave your negative review out in the open without acknowledging it, your potential customers will take notice and may take their business elsewhere. Try to respond to their comments as soon as possible – within 24-48 hours is ideal!

 

B2B Social Media Marketing Is A MUST

Social media is a fun way to interact with your audience and keep up with industry trends. But it also presents a unique opportunity to showcase your brand’s personality and products. Use it to your advantage!

B2B social media marketing is what BNP Engage does best. Our marketing experts in Philly will create a social strategy for your business so you can engage with your customers in a way that’s meaningful and trackable. Contact BNP Engage today to bring your social media marketing strategy to the next level. We look forward to hearing from you!