The benefits of social media for businesses in B2B industries differ a bit from the ways consumer brands use this important communication tool.
But a well-developed B2B social media marketing strategy is indispensable for achieving multiple business-building goals, including:
The truth is, more and more business communication has migrated into the world of social media. That’s created opportunities for effectively targeting and attracting, engaging, and delighting high-priority internal and external audiences.
In this installment of Weidert Wednesday, Strategist Stacy Bouchard explains how complex industrial and B2B businesses can fully utilize social media to support and drive growth as part of an inbound marketing strategy.
How can social media help your company attract, engage, and delight prospects, sales leads, customers, job recruits, and even your own employees? Tune in for today’s Weidert Wednesday, and we’ll tell you how complex industrials and B2Bs are utilizing social media to keep their organizations strong and growing.
Social media has important potential uses in all three stages of the inbound flywheel, to attract, engage, and delight external target audiences.
And it can be useful not only as a contact tool in all three major customer-facing operational areas:
… but also as a people-powered recruiting tool to support human resources.
So let’s take a closer look at the benefits of social media marketing to support inbound programs for complex industrials and B2Bs.
You can use social media to amplify new marketing content, prospect for sales leads, and promote targeted job openings.
It’s good to use company profiles to do some of that work; it’s even better if team members participate in promoting and prospecting, too.
Engagement is the next phase of the flywheel. Nearly any team member, but certainly marketing, sales, and service employees can spark conversations with their followers and other potential customers and help nurture prospects along in their buyer journey.
Social media can also provide a forum for sharing your workplace culture to engage the right people in conversations and get critical positions filled faster.
Social media platforms offer more opportunities to delight your audiences, too.
You’ve created different types of content that deliver value to sales leads and to your existing customers, so use your social media tactics to make sure those important audiences find that valuable content.
Are your customers in need of community? A LinkedIn or Facebook group could help you monitor the customer experience and identify opportunities to delight and build trust.
Your employees deserve attention, too. They can appreciate showcasing the good work your teams do and the culture you’re building together — so share posts that highlight them!
You can also facilitate employee-only social networks for fun and camaraderie. In increasingly remote work environments, this is more important than ever.
There you have it.
Using social media, you can interact with target audiences, internal and external, at every point in the flywheel, to attract, engage, delight, and keep your business strong.
Learn more about developing your social media strategy on our website, and if you need help, we’re here for you.
SEE OUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA FOR COMPLEX INDUSTRIES
It’s easy to see that a solid B2B social media strategy is an essential component of any comprehensive inbound marketing program. Both your company's social presence and individual employees’ participation create opportunities to spark new interactions, support ongoing conversations, and strengthen even long-term customer relationships.
Are you ready to start your own inbound marketing program? Explore what an inbound marketing approach means and what it can help you achieve, and assess your B2B company’s inbound readiness with our free resources. We’re confident you’ll be glad you took the time to learn more.
Topics: Social Media
