If you are a B2B company that has recently established a presence on social media – first of all ‘brilliant, well done’, and secondly if you are thinking ‘now what’ then hopefully help is at hand. 

It may be you have set up a LinkedIn company page or opened a Twitter account. You might have established a YouTube account. Or you might have created a Facebook Business page. Whichever one you have done, there are some Do’s and Don’ts that it might be wise to look at. I’ve picked out half a dozen that I think are key and can at least get you up and running in ‘social media’ world.

DO complete your profile
Your branding and image is as important on your social media platforms as it is on your website. First impressions are crucial, so take the opportunity to create an impression and give your audience some information about what you do. The banners for all your platforms can be designed, so consider a graphic or select a photograph that sums up your business as succinctly as possible.

DON’T just sell yourself
You’ll soon switch off any followers if the only content you put out there is about yourself. It needs to be balance of content that will engage your audience, encourage interaction and inform them. If you have a new product to launch, or you have invested in some new machinery, then by all means tell the world. But that needs to be countered with industry news, relevant technology information, helpful tips, local news, customer and supplier re-posts and the occasional humorous/random bit of content that gives you some personality. If you can get that mix right, your audience will engage.

DO be visual
With such recent stats as:

• Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images
• Articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images
• 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or business they support (all stats courtesy of HubSpot)

it’s no wonder images and videos are a vital ingredient to your content. You literally cannot afford to post on social media without an image or a video.

DON’T repeat the same message
It will get very boring for your audience if you just repeat the same thing over and over again. Be creative with the content – if you need to mention something again use a different context and change the image. Remember, social media is all about engaging with your audience not boring them to death.

DO post regularly
How regular is regular? Good question… and there isn’t one easy answer. As a B2B company a good balance we have found is try and put new content out there once a week, or even once a fortnight is ok. In addition, also make sure you check your feeds perhaps twice a week to interact with your followers, repost/share relevant content, comment on posts etc. The impression you are creating is one of engagement and interaction – so if you don’t look at your social media platforms for 3 months you are missing out on a tonne of opportunities to talk to your audience.

DON’T worry about the numbers
Whilst the number of followers or likes is an indication of engagement, it is at a very superficial level, so don’t get too stressed about chasing numbers. Your social media activity is aimed at brand awareness and growing your network which is a long-term strategy. So the focus needs to be on quality over quantity and delivering content that is central to your audience.

Hopefully the above gives you a foundation to get you started on your social media journey.

We all know marketing is an integral tool for any business. It’s a vehicle for self-promotion and can boost growth and sustainability. But going it alone can be daunting, and one of the first questions we are asked is ‘where do I start’?

Start strong

The answer is… start strong, with a marketing plan.

Define the markets you’re targeting, the key benefits your customers are looking for and what your competitors claim to be doing. You can write a marketing plan on the back of the proverbial cigarette packet if you wish… we wouldn’t advise that as a) you’ll probably lose it, and b) there isn’t going to be room for a whole lot of substance. The point is of course that in writing something down you are beginning to think and plan your future marketing activities, rather than take the approach of ‘let’s just wait and see what crops up and see if we can get a good deal.’

Not the dreaded SWOT analysis

Well yes, because it works! In your marketing plan, however you develop it, identifying your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) gives you a foundation to build your messages on. Decide on the appropriate message for your target audience and develop marketing objectives – these will guide your future activities and ensure you maximise your strengths and opportunities. They will also allow you to set benchmarks and KPI’s, that enable you to measure the success of your marketing over time.

Quantity over Quality

Talking of measuring success, in the world of B2B marketing it is clear that traditional methods of measuring success – click-through rates, impressions, cost per click etc – are not the panacea they once were. Just because you get hundreds of new visitors to your website, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will translate into new sales, as it very much depends on your target audience. So, measuring success is shifting towards quality over quantity. We will explore some ways of how you measure success in a future blog – stay tuned.

Momentum

Once you have gained some momentum, keep it going; develop a communications plan that highlights marketing tools that enable you to achieve your objectives. Produce a plan for a 6 to 12-month period to outline when your marketing activities will occur, and then refer to it and keep it updated and fresh.

Marketing planning isn’t rocket science, but it is genius and a great way to get you thinking.​

If you are at that starting point, and would like a no-obligation chat, please get in touch simon@thecollectivegroup.co.uk or telephone 01202 682322