Are you unsure about putting your business online because your target clients are other businesses? Do you feel social media is best used by those who are targeting individual users rather than companies? Well, you are not alone. Your worries are most businesses worries. However, these worries are unfounded.
Most social media campaigns have concentrated on individual customers rather than businesses. This does not mean that business to business (B2B) marketing on social media is not fruitful. As a matter of fact, social media marketing for B2B can be as fruitful as that of individual customers if done well. The same rules of engaging your audience, updating regularly and offering valuable content still apply.
LinkedIn has been and still is the most under-utilized social media channel in Kenya. You may be falling into this category of business owners who have created a LinkedIn page and neglected it. Yes, I understand your frustration. Most businesses leave their LinkedIn pages because they don’t know what to do next. Instead of giving up on LinkedIn, you can choose to establish yourself as your industry leader. You can do this by starting a group that provides useful and relevant information. Once you have a group, start connecting with businesses and individuals who could be your potential clients. Once you generate new leads, you can use the direct mail to sell your products and services to these businesses.
Apart from LinkedIn, you can also use twitter to market your business. Most local companies have been using twitter for customer service and to pass information. Twitter doesn’t have to be limited to these two. You can also use twitter to create new leads. Understanding and using hashtags can be a key part of B2B marketing on Twitter as well as following accounts you would like your business to work with and engaging with them. Both of these strategies allow your business to enter conversations and share valuable content. For example, if you are an event organizing company, you can share links on a check list for organizing an outdoor event or an office party.
If you doubt Facebook’s potential as a tool for B2B marketing, you need to see their ad features. You can now set your ads to be targeted to a specific individuals’ employer. As long as the individual has stated an employer, you can target your ad to them. This can be extremely useful for reaching out to entirely new prospects and introducing them to your company.
One difficulty with B2B social media marketing is the theoretical leap to seeing these social tools as also being good for lead generation between businesses. Nonetheless, targeting and engaging businesses of interest in the same way that you would individual customers, can unlock the powerful potential of social media marketing for B2B.
Other platforms including Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube are all excellent social platforms for certain types of B2B marketing as well, and B2B companies that engage users effectively on these platforms will see measurable results.
Contact us now to see how we could help your B2B marketing options, efficiently and affordably.
Source: Social Media for Business to Business | Nelly Movine | LinkedIn
