Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, promoting your brand and engaging with your audience through social media is marketing 101. It’s fast, free, and effective! Not only can you post updates about your company and employees to showcase the successes and personality of your brand but it’s an excellent way of sharing valuable content with key audiences. It’s no surprise that 84% of B2B decision makers are influenced by social media and over half of B2B buyers use social media sites to find what they are looking for.
To help you on your social media quest (whatever stage you may be at), we have put together a handy A-Z index to keep in your back pocket.
A – Analytics allow you to monitor posts, followers, and engagement rates, helping you track performance against objectives and KPIs.
B – B2B (of course!). More and more B2B businesses are realising the value of social media and how it can complement other forms of marketing.
C – Comments. These should be monitored frequently as they can offer you vital feedback about your business, products, and services.
D – Demographics can help you understand details about your followers better. Did you know that 25–34-year-olds are the largest age group on social media?
E – Engagement rates track how many of your followers are actively involved in your content. Top tip: take a look at who has liked and reshared your content – is it people within your organisation or an external audience.
F – Followers are key to making sure your content gets seen. Be mindful that quantity doesn’t translate to quality. You want your target audience to be engaging with your posts.
G – GIFs, who doesn’t love these. While you might be a little hesitant to use these on your brand’s social account, just be bold. Most people love humour, and it shows you are fun.
H – Hootsuite and other social media scheduling platforms are a ‘god send’ as it means posts can be uploaded in bulk and published any time you want (it also saves a lot of time).
I – Inclusive social media humanises your brand and helps your customers see themselves in your messaging. Top tip: Think about the images you are using.
J – Judgement. If in doubt don’t post. Also, consider if there is anything sensitive that is going on in the industry or even the world that might impact the timings or tone of voice of your social posts.
K – Killer social campaigns will help you get noticed by the right people and if it’s super creative, it might even go viral. (Move over Aldi).
L – LinkedIn is without a doubt the most relevant platform for B2B businesses. Know it, use it, love it.
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M – Metrics can help give you the bigger picture and are essential when reporting back to relevant stakeholders. Consider also sharing any positive insights to your internal network.
N – News should be shared across your channels. Third party news shows you are in touch with your industry whereas company news enables followers to keep up to date with successes.
O – Objectives need to be set when creating your B2B social media strategy as they can help keep you focused. These should be developed in addition to KPIs to ensure you can measure your success and make adjustments when needed.
P – Platforms. Don’t throw all your eggs in one basket but equally you don’t need to be present on every social media site.
Q – Questions are a great way to engage with your audience. Get them to drop an answer in the comments box.
R – Review each post before it is scheduled. Better yet, get a colleague to check for you. There’s nothing more embarrassing than a spelling mistake or poorly worded post.
S – Strategy is essential to ensure your social media is supporting your marketing goals. Check out our blog on social media strategy to learn more.
T – Twitter is a fantastic platform for reaching your audience quickly, monitoring trends, and sharing content.
U – User generated content refers to the unpaid and unsponsored social posts that people across every network share when they are loving (or not loving) your businesses, its products and/or services. Types of content can include images, videos and comments.
V – Video is not to be underestimated. Video content popularity has grown across every platform over the past few years and can be extremely effective.
W – social media WILL help contribute to lead generation and brand awareness if done right and will help you increase audience reach.
X – X-rated (don’t you dare!) or any offensive language should not be posted. We know it may sound a little obvious but think carefully about what you’re posting. Though it might not seem offensive to you it could be to your audience.
Y – YouTube is a great way to easily share video content and will be less time consuming than uploading your videos manually, especially when posting longer clips.
Z – Zoho is another platform you can use to schedule all your posts. However, this doesn’t just cater for social media – it also acts as a CRM solution.
If you’re looking for some advice about how to best approach your B2B social media, head over to our service page to find out more.
