by tradesmeninsights | Mar 8, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Although Facebook’s initial intention was to connect and share on a personal level, B-to-B companies for the most part have a hard time using Facebook as part of their overall marketing program. Here are some facts to consider:
People on Facebook
- More than 500 million active users
- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- Average user has 130 friends
- People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
So what does this mean to the B2B community? It means that many of the same people who are currently on Facebook could possibly be customers or potentials for your products. The question is, why aren’t you taking advantage of them? The best way is through the fan page, and I recently read a post by Dave Folkens from Top Rank on
5 Tips on Better Facebook Marketing for B2B Companies that I thought outlined some simple things to take advantage of the fan page. Here are some highlights:
- Create a two-way conversation – You need to engage people, so don’t always talk at them and push out news. Listen and give them content and insight that will help them.
- Connect community – Give your fans a place to come together and share.
- Build relationships – People buy from folks they know, like and trust. According to a survey from Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate, customers are more likely to buy from companies they follow on social media.
- Cross promote – You can’t have all the answers nor should you. Use Facebook to share interesting articles about your industry.
- Make things sharable – Make content interesting and fun. What we really want is to have people share.
So if you currently have a blog and want to repurpose your content, this is a good way to do that and build your Facebook fan base at the same time.
What are you doing to build your fan page?
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 3, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
We’ve all heard the expression “Content is King.” Although we all know it sometimes, we may not practice it. Content drives credibility, market leadership and leads, so it’s important to follow certain steps to ensure positive results. I read a post recently from Roy Young in Marketing prof.com, 12 B2B Content-Marketing Practices to Ensure Success that I thought was right on the money. Here are some of the ones that hit home for me:
- Identify sources within your organization for content – look outside marketing to search for experts. Product development, customer service and sales are 3 areas that could be good sources for content.
- Listen to customers and prospects – what are they talking about, what issues/pain points do they need addressed?
- Develop different content for different audience segments. Owners of contracting firms might want one thing and the guy who heads up the crews might want something different.
- Vary your content for buying cycles – not everyone is ready to buy. Some are researching and gathering info. Make sure you speak to them as well.
- Vary formats – Shake it up a little. Don’t just write, throw in a short video or podcast. Even lighten it up once in a while. Most people have a sense of humor and who doesn’t need a laugh now and then?
- Use social media to build relationships and distribute your content – other than the traditional ways of getting your story out, use social to inform and engage your customers and target audiences.
These are a few hints that help me in my efforts to produce good content. What are you doing?
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 2, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
So you follow some industry gurus and their blogs, but do you take advantage of the knowledge that you receive?
Commenting on blogs will do several things, among them getting the blogger to notice you, and if you do it on a regular basis, you can start building a relationship with them. Comments with links (that aren’t self promotional) will send visits. If the link continues to gain traction, this could be an ongoing source of referrals to your site.
I recently read a post by Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz on Recommendations for Blog Comments as a Marketing Strategy that had some interesting points. Rand highlights 10 recommendations for blog comments, and they include the following:
- Read at least 5 posts by an author before commenting. Get a good sense of their interests and perspectives first.
- Read at least 3 posts worth of comments. See how the rest of his followers are responding to get a better sense of community.
- Read previous posted comments on the thread. You don’t want to say something that has already been addressed.
- Write more than a tweet but less than a post. Make your point in 2 or 3 paragraphs with an appropriate link.
These are some good points and we all should take advantage of participating. If not, we’ll never get engaged with those that we want to.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 24, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Everyone by now knows that social media is not going away. I believe most companies, no matter what their size, have accepted that fact and have jumped in in some fashion. But you can’t build a social business or any other one without a plan.
I recently read a post by Michael Brito in Social Media Examiner called, The 3 Pillars of Social Media Readiness that I thought hit home on the points all of us are facing as we move through the social media maze. Here are some highlights of Michaels article where focuses on 3 key areas we need to look at:
- People – Get internal teams to communicate with each other. It’s important that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.
- Governance – You need processes in place to manage the chaos which include guidelines and policies.
- Technology – Invest in platforms that facilitate internal collaboration.
Conversations are going on.
A study in 2009 found that 85% of Americans using social media think companies should have an active presence. Of the 85% who answered the question:
- 34% want companies to actively interact with them
- 51% want companies to interact with them as needed or by request
- 8% thinks companies should be passively involved
- 7% thinks companies shouldn’t be involved at all
So are you following these 3 easy steps, or do you have some of your own that you’d like to share?
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 23, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
For those who follow me on a regular basis, you know I’m a big supporter of blogs. It seems that most companies now are at least considering doing a blog.
Here are a few good reasons you should consider a blog for your company:
- Websites are mostly static – Once a contractor has been to your website, why does he need to go back? He knows who you are and what you do. If you don’t get him to follow you on an RSS feed or fill out a form to be on a mailing list, you basically have lost most visitors.
- Thought leadership – One of the main objectives of a blog is to set you and your company apart. What better way to increase your brand awareness and generate new leads?
- Keep your customers/prospects coming back – When you publish new content on a regular basis, customers and prospects keep coming back. It also allows for interactions with both categories.
- Re-purpose content – You can take a current post and use it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to gain additional exposure.
- Blogs can provide additional in-links – Once you establish yourself as a thought leader in a category, others will begin to link back to you and this will alert search engines that you must be saying something important.
These are some of my reasons for blogging. I’d like to hear some of yours.
If you like this post, you may want to read:
Are you Using Blogs to Reach the Professional Tradesmen?
Have you Started a Company Blog? Maybe you Should.
5 Helpful Hints to Attract New Business Using Your Blog.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 22, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
With the advent of social media, the way customers contact us and us them has changed dramatically. Gone are the days that our only options to talk to companies were either by snail mail, email or a customer service hot line.
Social media opens up numerous ways that people not only can talk to you, but about you, to others. This is the game changer and if you do nothing else on social, please at least listen to what people are saying about your company and your brands. One comment on Twitter can start an avalanche of other comments (good or bad). Wouldn’t you like to know what’s being said about you? I sure would!
I recently read a post by Jay Baer, 6 Parts of your Company That Should be Listening to Social Conversations that I found extremely interesting and wanted to share some highlights. Some are obvious; others we all should put on our list.
- Sales – Listening programs give you the opportunity to find prospects when the timing is perfect and when they’re actually asking for answers you have.
- Marketing and PR – Listening helps make sure that the language you’re using as a company is the same language being used by the people you’re hoping to hook.
- Customer Service – Customers are airing their concerns, questions, and grievances over social media channels, especially if traditional channels prove less than helpful.
- R&D – You can fuel your idea engine by harnessing the input, thoughts and creativity of the online audience.
- HR – The obvious potential here is talent recruiting, in both finding potential employees and examining their online social graphs.
- Executives and Management – They can understand market trends through the unfettered viewpoint of the online masses and determine whether they’re behind, ahead of, or riding the curve.
Are you missing an opportunity here? How many listeners do you have at your company?
