by tradespeopleinsights | Mar 9, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
Some people still don’t see the advantage of Twitter as a B-to-B tool. According to ExactTarget’s “Subscribers, Fans and Followers” report, it concludes there is influence on customer loyalty between e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.
- Daily Twitter users who follow a brand were twice as likely as daily Facebook users who “likes” a product to purchase it.
- A third of Twitter followers said they were more apt to recommend a brand that they follow.
This would make Twitter followers more attractive to marketers. That’s the good news. The better news is that these Twitter followers currently represent a small base (3% in the US), so as they grow, so do your opportunities.
Are you using Twitter, and are you finding success with it?
by tradespeopleinsights | 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 tradespeopleinsights | 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 tradespeopleinsights | 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 tradespeopleinsights | Mar 1, 2011 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Times they are a changing. Last year, the tablet category essentially didn’t exist. Today with the iPad revitalizing the category, it’s expected to reach 81.3 million units by 2012 according to eMarketer.
This and the fact that there are more smart phones being sold each month than PCs means we need to rethink mobile as a viable means to getting to those younger folks (tradesman). A recent survey from Nielsen showed that iPad users were more likely (even more than iPhone users) to click on ads, videos, multimedia and interactive offerings.
There’s an opportunity for marketers to target these tablet users who are engaged and prime to purchase. The demo for the tablet users are high income 18-34 year olds – predominantly male. So, for those of you trying to reach that elusive young tradesman, this might be a way to do it.
If you like this, you might like the following:
White Paper: Trends in Mobile Media
by tradespeopleinsights | 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?
